The walls of the courtroom had closed in around her, a grave she was buried in alive. She was chained up, a thick metal collar rubbing tightly around her neck, her wrists pulled so far behind her back they hurt. She could barely even move her neck to stare back into the faces of her jailers.

"Guilty! Guilty! Guilty!" the judge bellowed, slamming his hand against his desk, again and again. The wood had cracked with every blow, yet somehow, the desk still held. "Fraud! Theft! Murder! Collaboration with the enemies of the empire! Guilty!"

"Fuck you," Qian Shanyi spat out. "I did nothing wrong. Not a single heavens-damned thing."

This whole picture wasn't adding up, but her mind felt so sluggish she couldn't even put it together. Did she get hit in the head by a donkey? It certainly felt like it.

"It's time to wake up to your crimes, miss Qian!" the judge said, shaking his sword directly in her face. "It's time to wake up!"

"What?"

"It's time to wake up!"

"Bwuh?" Qian Shanyi eloquently said, pulling herself out of the dream through truly inhuman effort. It felt as if she had been trying to swim up from the bottom of an ocean with her arms chained up behind her back. Her bleary eyes opened, one after the other, and slowly, the reality around her came back into focus.

I should have known that was a damn dream.

"Shanyi?" Linghui Mei said, shaking her by the shoulder. She had been leaning over the bed, already fully dressed. "You said to wake you up at dawn."

"Dawn?" Qian Shanyi groaned, squinting at the light. Some monster had pulled the curtains back, and the blasphemous sun was shining directly into her eyes, every ray a red hot poker piercing directly through her corneas. Memories crept back into her head, like maggots into a decomposing corpse. The festival, the ghost, staying up too late, drinking far too much… A parade of truly inadvisable choices.

"My past self was an imbecile, ignore her," Qian Shanyi concluded, rolling over onto her other side and away from the window. "I need another hour."

"That's what you said an hour ago," Linghui Mei said apologetically.

Qian Shanyi closed her eyes, trying to cover them with her elbow, but Linghui Mei grabbed her by the wrist and pulled it away.

"You said you might try to go back to sleep, too," Linghui Mei said. "And to not let you do that."

Now that she'd mentioned it, Qian Shanyi could vaguely remember saying something of the sort. Truly, her own cruelty was without limits.

"I'm not sleeping," Qian Shanyi muttered, keeping her eyes closed and preparing to go back to sleep. "I am already up…"

A flood of ice cold water hit her in the face, and Qian Shanyi screamed in shock, rolling out of bed. She landed painfully on her ass and scrambled back blindly, naked and dripping wet, the last vestiges of sleep washed completely out of her mind. Her eyes snapped to Linghui Mei, who was standing next to the bed, empty bucket in hand.

"What," Qian Shanyi hissed, feeling her cheeks flush with rage, "is the meaning of this?"

"You told me to wake you up," Linghui Mei said, putting down the bucket, as if that explained anything whatsoever. Her face was impassable.

"Did I also tell you to use the bucket?" Qian Shanyi said, getting back onto her feet and wiping her face. At least the water felt clean.

"No," Linghui Mei deadpanned. "That was my idea."

Qian Shanyi scowled at her disciple. Was that her way of getting back at Qian Shanyi for dragging her to the festival against her wishes? She had sulked some last night, but Qian Shanyi certainly didn't expect this.

Is this the thanks I get for training you?

"Get me a damn towel," she finally snapped, running her hands over her body to flick at least some of the water away. "And for your sake, I hope that the breakfast is already ready, and cooked to my satisfaction - or my vengeance will be cruel and merciless."

"Of course, master."

"Honorable miss Song?" Qian Shanyi said, knocking on the young woman's door. "May I have a moment?"

The faint sobbing she had heard in the room beyond stilled. Qian Shanyi had waited patiently - the morning had gone well, at least after that disastrous bucket incident, and so for once she had both time and patience in spades. The magistrate accepted her report without much questioning, and by now, all their other affairs in town had been resolved.

All but one.

"Miss Song, I can hear you breathing through the door," Qian Shanyi said, knocking again, when no answer seemed to be forthcoming. She couldn't actually, but that mattered little, she just wanted to get the girl moving. "Please open the door, this won't take long."

Finally she heard the rustle of cloth, and soft patting of naked feet on the wooden floors, until the door opened - just a crack. A single red, puffy eye appeared in the opening.

"What?" the eye asked, in the hoarse voice of someone who cried the night away.

"Our mutual friend asked me about you joining our sect," Qian Shanyi said, deciding to get straight to the point. She angled her head slightly, as if trying to make a bit more of the room out through the narrow opening. "We are leaving town now, and there are some things you should know."

Song Hexiang sniffled slightly and wiped at her eye. "He really asked you that?" she said quietly, as if trying not to spook a pleasant dream away.

"He did," Qian Shanyi nodded. She tried to keep her voice neutral, professional. "Unfortunately, our sect is not open to new outer disciples at this time. Fortunately for you, that might change in six months, but there are some conditions."

Running back to town to handle the magistrate report gave her some time to think, and with the clarity of sunlight shining onto her head, she realised she was missing the obvious. So what if Song Hexiang had no useful skills? She could learn. The fates had offered her a loyal outer disciple on a silver platter - she'd be a fool to pass up the opportunity.

Yes, she had no use for an outer disciple right this moment. But she was already planning to expand their operations. She'd soon need every extra pair of hands she could find, and unfortunately, clever people couldn't be found simply laying by the side of the road.

"Six…months?" Song Hexiang said. Qian Shanyi wasn't sure if the words really registered for her. Song Hexiang still seemed far too out of it, and as far as Qian Shanyi knew, she hadn't even left her room since last night. Not even to have breakfast.

"I assure you, you will soon wish it was twelve," Qian Shanyi continued, before gesturing to the door with an open hand. "May I come in?"

Song Hexiang sniffled again, but shrugged, and opened the door wider, letting Qian Shanyi inside. Her room looked little different from how Qian Shanyi had seen it, just a few days ago - a bed much like the one Qian Shanyi herself slept on, if made for a single person, plenty of closets and chests, and a wide vanity. It was dark - the curtains were shut tight. The room seemed clean enough, though shards of glass and porcelain on the floor betrayed another outburst, some vase or mirror having been made the victim.

Song Hexiang climbed back into her bed, wrapping herself up in a blanket. She had been dressed - or undressed, as the case may be - in the same night clothes Qian Shanyi had seen when they first met. Qian Shanyi quietly shut the door behind her, and sat down on the edge of the same bed, careful to not disturb the covers too much.

"Let me begin with a summary," she said, mostly to give Song Hexiang some time to focus and collect herself. "I come from the Sky Void Island Temple sect. We are an unorthodox sect, coming from outside the empire, though we share many of the basic principles." Qian Shanyi paused for a moment. She wasn't sure how much of what she had to say would even be understood, as it relied on context she was pretty sure Song Hexiang lacked, but it still needed to be said.

"Becoming an outer disciple of our sect will make you legally independent from your family," Qian Shanyi continued, "However, because we are merely a recognised sect, many of the traditional benefits outer disciples can expect will not be available to you - in particular in regards to extradition and the right to a trial within the walls of your sect. We will still provide you with a daily allowance more than sufficient enough to live off of, and your duties, should you accept them, will require you to travel all over the empire - something I believe you were already interested in." She paused again, watching Song Hexiang's expression carefully. Her eyes had been slowly growing wider with every word she said. "Are you interested? Zhang Zhuangtian has asked for you, but you are under no obligation to accept."

Song Hexiang swallowed, nodding nervously, almost as if she was having a mild seizure. "I - yes, of course!" she stuttered, "Of course I accept! What - what do I need to do?!"

"Mmm," Qian Shanyi said, "Well, our acceptance requirements are really quite lax. There are only two of them."

She reached into her bag and pulled out a pair of books. "The first is that you must be fully literate," she continued, "Passing the imperial exams is a strong plus, but the ability matters far more than the certification. I took the liberty of finding these preparatory books for you. I hope you will find them illuminating on their own, as I doubt you will be able to find a tutor."

She had the bright idea to visit Zhang Zhuangtian's family right after she returned from the magistrate. She wanted to pay them for the books, as they were quite expensive, especially for a family like theirs - but they seemed glad to simply give them to someone who had a use for them. Or perhaps they just wanted her out of their house. She doubted her face brought back good memories, after she brought them their son's cold corpse.

"So, if you truly wish to join, you must be proficient at reading, writing, and basic arithmetic in six months," Qian Shanyi kept speaking. "Assuming Zhang Zhuangtian did not lie to me, and you already know the basics, this is eminently achievable."

She wasn't actually sure if it was. Zhang Zhuangtian was lovestruck, and couldn't be relied on to honestly assess her skill for a dozen different reasons. Even if she really could read at a level where she could improve on her own, there was only so much you could achieve without a partner, a teacher, someone who could find the mistakes you wouldn't even notice, with only two books to work with. Mostly, she just wanted to give Song Hexiang something to focus on, to see how far she could get by the time they came back.

Song Hexiang reached over to pick up the books. Her hands trembled. "These are…" She swallowed, before looking Qian Shanyi's in the eyes. "And the second requirement?"

"You need an imperial seal."

A slight shake of the head. "I - I don't have one."

Qian Shanyi shrugged carelessly. She expected as much. "So get one made."

Song Hexiang's breath quickened. "Get one made - how?!" she said, her tone raising, even as all the blood receded from her face. She grabbed the collar of her night clothes, not too far from her heart. "I don't know -"

Qian Shanyi shrugged again, and pulled her bag back on her shoulder. "I believe you can apply in most major cities, perhaps even in your local magistrate, and you should already be of age," she said, not letting Song Hexiang's panic get hold of the conversation. "Of course, you would have to either get your father's approval - or figure out how to hide it from him. But you are a smart girl, you can figure it out."

This was far more of a challenge to Song Hexiang's skills than the literacy. If she managed to keep her affair with Zhang Zhuangtian hidden all this time - then Qian Shanyi thought that managing some little scheme like this was well within her skills, especially with six months to work with. Even if she was found out, merely getting a seal made without her father's approval should at most merit a beating, not truly risk her life.

Perhaps it was a little cruel to push Song Hexiang like this - but if Qian Shanyi was going to work with her, then she needed to know the limits of her abilities. Besides, it would make signing all other documents far, far easier.

"Here is a helpful hint to get you started," Qian Shanyi said, getting up from the bed. "You will need free time to work with, in order to study, among other things, and an excuse that could explain a change in your behavior. Fortunately, you already have one available."

Song Hexiang's large eyes followed her as she headed for the doors. "What is it?"

Qian Shanyi turned her head back slightly, without fully turning around. "Why, all you would have to do is tell your father that you need some time alone to grieve your secret, recently deceased, and unfortunately unreciprocated love - one Tang Jisheng, who had been reported dead just this morning. It should even free you up from any search for suitors, at least for a time."

Fiery rage passed over Song Hexiang's face. Qian Shanyi had told her little of the specifics of what happened between Zhang Zhuangtian and Tang Jisheng, and she doubted that Zhang Zhuangtian had said much more - but it did not take a genius to put the picture together.

Qian Shanyi thought it was the obvious, optimal lie to make - but would Song Hexiang be willing to say she was in love with the man who, arguably, was responsible for her actual beloved's death? It was hard to say.

"I will leave it up to you if you wish to rely on this advice," Qian Shanyi said, and stopped with her hand on the door's handle, turning around fully to face Song Hexiang again. "Oh, and… There is one more thing," she said, "It's possible, even if quite unlikely, that in the months to come, you might hear of some cultivators asking for me. Especially someone by the name of Fang Jiugui."

"Okay," Song Hexiang said, trying to stare holes through Qian Shanyi's throat.

"I would appreciate it if you would stay silent about my involvement, but I will not hold it against you even if you tell them what you know," Qian Shanyi continued. "You should know that no matter what they say, you are guilty of nothing and cannot be held liable for anything whatsoever. But if you would be so kind as to write me a letter about their snooping, and send it to the Thunder Gemstone City, I would make sure it looks well on your application to our sect."

She wasn't worried about Song Hexiang talking, mostly because she should have known almost nothing of value. Even her little scheme with the ghost was arguably within the bounds of the Sapient Life Incompatibility Act, at least as far as Qian Shanyi could recall it. Nor did she have any intention of passing anywhere close to the Thunder Gemstone City - but the letter would remain there safely, and if she ever needed to check, she could always send a voidbird.

"Take care, miss Song," Qian Shanyi said, and stepped through the doors. "I wish you luck in all your tribulations."

She quietly closed the door behind her, leaving the girl alone.

Qian Shanyi met up with Wang Yonghao briefly in the morning, and so once she left the Song farm, she already knew where to head. Linghui Mei followed after her, carrying the bags with their herbs and clothing, and within twenty minutes, they all met up on the road to Sickle Springs, all hugs and smiles, before they headed out into the forest. None of them wanted to carry the bags, when Wang Yonghao's world fragment was right there.

But no matter how glad Qian Shanyi was to see Wang Yonghao, and how glad he was to see her, the emotions had dulled since last night's reunion. The warmth had given way to mild annoyance, and so once Wang Yonghao stepped down into the entrance of his inner world, carrying Qian Shanyi on a rope hanging off his waist and Linghui Mei on his back, he started to gripe right away.

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"Have you two gotten fatter while I was away?" Wang Yonghao said, wincing at the weight he carried. His steps stayed careful, slowly descending through the air.

Qian Shanyi snorted. She had seen him carry tree trunks that weighed the same, so she doubted he was at any danger of slipping. "You are the one who decided to carry us both together, yet now you complain? I told you it would be too much."

Wang Yonghao's grumbles took on a distinctly non-verbal character, and Qian Shanyi looked back down, surveying their domain. She had only been traveling with Wang Yonghao for a few months, if that, but she already started to feel that his inner world was a sort of home - and so coming back to it, she felt safer, and resuscitated.

The rich spiritual energy in the air certainly didn't hurt.

"I see that you did the harvest," Qian Shanyi said, giving their bean field a critical look. The bean pods had vanished, though here and there, she could already see fresh pods beginning to sprout again. "Any problems with it?"

"No, it went fine," Wang Yonghao said, wincing. "I put the beans away in our hut."

"Excellent work," Qian Shanyi said, and hopped off the rope harness, landing on the ground with a roll. They were only six meters up, and she didn't want to torture Wang Yonghao any more than was necessary. "And how many rabbits do we have now?"

"Fifty eight."

Qian Shanyi whistled. That was quite a bit more than they expected. She couldn't get a count from up in the air, not the least because some of them were hiding underground, but all ten of their coops seemed very active.

"Did Qihao and Bahao get pregnant as well?" she said, heading over to the closest coop to take a look. Behind her, Linghui Mei hopped off Wang Yonghao's back, and the man had finally landed on the ground, stretching out his shoulders.

"No, I've missed two -" Wang Yonghao said, before he stopped, and turned to stare at her in shock. "Wait. Who are Qihao and Bahao?"

Qian Shanyi turned around, giving him an expectant, yet slightly questioning look. She had been waiting to spring this on him for weeks, yet he never gave her an opportunity. "The rabbits?" she said entirely innocently. "Qihao is black with white spots, while Bahao is pure white -"

Wang Yonghao groaned, pulling at his hair. "No!" he said despondently. "You did not - you did not name the other rabbits with your stupid scheme! Yihao was bad enough!"

"I do believe I did," Qian Shanyi said, smirking back at him. "How could you take their given names away from Qihao and Bahao? It's inhumane."

She missed this.

"Their names are White Rose and Midnight Ginger, you witch," Wang Yonghao said, glaring at her.

Qian Shanyi snorted, letting the insult pass by her ears. "Yonghao, Yonghao, are you sure you want to give them proper names?" she tutted, reaching over the coop fence to grab one of the passing rabbits. It was half black, half white - not one of the eight they bought all those weeks ago. "What did you name this one?"

Wang Yonghao gave her a wary look, coming closer, as if afraid that she would do something to the poor, innocent rabbit. "Little Yin," he said. "There's… there is also little Yang, he's -"

"Little Yin, huh?" Qian Shanyi said, rubbing her nose against the oblivious rabbit. "I'm thinking he'll taste great once we roast him."

Linghui Mei gave her a look from where she was dumping out their bags on their workbench, laying out the preserved plants to one side, their various clothes to the other.

Wang Yonghao groaned again, jogging over to her. He stretched out his hand to take the rabbit from her, but she stepped back, out of his reach. "Stop joking around."

"Who is joking, Yonghao, mm?" Qian Shanyi said, petting the rabbit on the ears. It was calm enough, at least for now. "What do you think we were raising them for? To look pretty?"

"You…" Wang Yonghao clenched his fist, and bit his lip, staring at the rabbit with more than a little fear. "You can't roast little Yin."

"Of course not. But I could roast a little Ershisanhao, couldn't I?" She grinned, raising the rabbit up to her head. "We need a little welcoming feast for coming back into the world fragment, don't we?"

"At least pick someone else. Little Yin… he's one of the first, and he is far too gentle -"

"Will we not have to eat them all, in the end?"

"Oh come on," Wang Yonghao pleaded with her, "It's like eating a member of your own family!"

"The shared memories only make them more delicious," Qian Shanyi said, raising the rabbit higher still and tossing her head back, as she pantomimed lowering it directly into her wide open mouth. The rabbit wiggled slightly, perhaps unnerved by the sight of her white teeth so close to its body.

Wang Yonghao grimaced and reached for the rabbit again, but Qian Shanyi was quick on her feet. "Would you eat your own mother?"

"That depends. Will I get to pick the sauce?"

Wang Yonghao groaned again, turning to Linghui Mei. "Mei, please back me up here. Tell her she is going too far. No sane person would eat their own parents."

Qian Shanyi was surprised to see Linghui Mei sneer, her eyes narrowing down to slits. "I am a good daughter," Linghui Mei said, every word as if a proud smithing hammer falling down on an unsuspecting brick of metal. "Of course I ate my own mother."

Qian Shanyi's laugh was almost loud enough to drown out Wang Yonghao's scream of indignation. "What?" Wang Yonghao said, clutching his head in his arms, as he looked in between Qian Shanyi and Linghui Mei. "You have to be joking. Did you two plan this?"

"Come now, Yonghao, don't be insensitive!" Qian Shanyi said, still laughing her ass off. She had no idea what Linghui Mei was talking about, of course, but in the moment, that hardly mattered. "Here, try this," she said, turning to Linghui Mei, and bowing deeply. "Mei, if I die, you have my permission to eat me as well."

Linghui Mei blushed slightly, then coughed into her fist. "Thank you, but it would be inappropriate, master."

"You actually ate your own mother?!" Wang Yonghao continued, still refusing to accept reality. "How - why?!"

"I admit to some interest myself," Qian Shanyi said, coming down from her laughter. "With how you've behaved, I would have figured you would refuse to even touch a corpse."

"You know nothing and understand even less," Linghui Mei scoffed. "A corpse is unclean to touch for everyone except their family. So why would there be a problem?"

"But why consume it?" Qian Shanyi continued. "That's not very karmist of you."

Linghui Mei's scowl grew a little wider. "Nothing in the scriptures states what must happen to the body after the vigil."

"Oh come on," Wang Yonghao groaned, covering his face up with both hands.

For a moment, Qian Shanyi thought Linghui Mei would leave it at that. Perhaps she would have, some time ago. Qian Shanyi could tell that the topic was not a comfortable one, no matter how much bluster Linghui Mei put into her words.

"My mother was a loremaster, and she belonged to all jiuweihu," Linghui Mei said, crossing her arms on her chest. "When she felt her end was approaching, she gathered many of us. There was a feast. There will be one when I die as well… as long as I will get to choose my death."

Qian Shanyi whistled slightly. She could read between the lines easily enough. Few could feel their death coming, let alone with enough precision to schedule a feast. That meant that either Linghui Mei's mother had chosen to take her own life - or that Linghui Mei had helped her along.

Had she eaten her mother's soul as well?

Loremaster, she said. That was a word with meaning, and one she hadn't heard from Linghui Mei before. She'll have to poke her disciple carefully to find out more, but that could wait.

"I suppose it makes sense in many respects," Qian Shanyi said, stroking her chin. "Any immortal chef can tell you that properly prepared flesh of spiritual beings is one of the best aids to cultivation. Really, it is us cultivators who are too squeamish to do the sensible thing."

Wang Yonghao sighed at her side, giving her a very scary look. "Shanyi, if I die…" he began, "You are absolutely prohibited from eating me. Even if it would save your life. In fact, especially if it would save your life."

"Very well, Yonghao," Qian Shanyi drawled, gesturing with the rabbit. "I will endeavor to keep you alive for as long as possible, and only cut off little pieces to snack on. In any case - will you partake of the rabbit?"

"No thank you," Wang Yonghao said, his face turning a little green. "I'll stick to rice and vegetables, for now."

Qian Shanyi didn't end up cooking little Yin. For all that she joked that they'd eat all the rabbits eventually, that wasn't quite true. They could keep some away from the knife, whatever ones he had already grown attached to. In fact, they were still a little short - if they wanted Linghui Mei to have one rabbit to eat per day, and it took about two months for the rabbits to grow up for the harvest, then they'd need about ninety rabbits total - thirty ready to be eaten, thirty in their second month of growth, and thirty in their first.

Instead, she picked out another rabbit. She really wanted to know how a rabbit raised in an environment of dense spiritual energy would taste, and besides, Linghui Mei was also surely hungry.

Wang Yonghao refused to watch her cook the rabbit, but he still came by once the meal was ready, to speak of what happened to him while they were separated. He spoke of the sect that apparently matched him to a two hundred year old divination, and of a demonic cultivator he met who seemed hell-bent on challenging his strength. But mostly, he spoke of travel all around the countryside, and of what he did to avoid notice from Fang Jiugui.

"Oh, and there is this -" Wang Yonghao said, as yet another chapter of his story came to a close. He got up and headed over to the hut, coming out only a moment later with a flat glass rectangle, about the length of his elbow, which he carefully handed to Qian Shanyi.

On a closer inspection, the rectangle turned out to be a box, but only about as thick as her finger. It was filled almost to the brim with earth, with the top of the box covered up by a tight metal mesh, and a sealed glass stopper. Inside the box, Qian Shanyi could see nothing of any particular note, only some plant cuttings, a bit of water in a small metal pan, and black ants crawling all along the ground, vanishing into a little hole right in the middle.

"Ants?" Qian Shanyi said, and raised an eyebrow at Wang Yonghao. Even if she could guess that this is what the box was for, it explained little of its significance. They didn't seem particularly unusual and contained little spiritual energy, so if they were demon beasts, she doubted they were particularly impressive ones.

"Yeah," Wang Yonghao said, nodding excitedly. "On my way back, I passed through one of the dwarfholds -"

"Did you try their milk?" Qian Shanyi said automatically, still looking over the little ant farm.

Wang Yonghao stumbled, then glared back at her. "What - no I did not try the milk," he said, scowling. "Only a pervert like you would even suggest this!"

"It's supposed to be a delicacy, you philistine," Qian Shanyi said, rolling her eyes. "I've always wished to try, but it doesn't keep, and there were no holds near the Golden Rabbit Bay -" she stopped, waving him off. "Well, no matter. Please continue, I apologise for interrupting you."

Wang Yonghao sighed, glared at her a bit more, before sighing. "Anyways. I figured taking one of their paths would help me break my trail."

"It's a good idea," Qian Shanyi said. She set the ant farm down, leaning it up against the leg of their workbench. "Information doesn't really travel well between them and the empire, even on the best of days."

Wang Yonghao nodded. He told her he had spent some time with the dwarves before, so surely he knew far more than she did. "Right. Well, while I was there, I asked about their farms," Wang Yonghao continued. He fidgeted slightly as he spoke, one of his arms making wide gestures in the air. "I figured, this world fragment isn't that different from a cave, right? And they must have some ways of dealing with parasites, some poison they could sell me. So I said that my sect has this cave, and we were having problems with rosevines -"

"And they gave you ants?" Qian Shanyi said, pointing to the ant farm.

Wang Yonghao nodded. "Not right away, but yes," he spoke, stumbling over his words a bit. "One of them - well, you know what I mean, they keep these ant farms. They told me that without rainfall, any kind of poison would only stick around and be absorbed by our crops. But ants - they can burrow through the ground, and eat the rosevines directly. And they are too small for the vines to grasp, so there is nothing they can do except run away or be eaten. And then, once there are no rosevines left, the ants would simply starve to death."

"Hm," Qian Shanyi said, frowning slightly. "I can see the logic."

"So… Do you think it's a good idea?" Wang Yonghao spoke hesitantly. The look he gave her wasn't that different from a puppy, looking for a gentle hand to pet them. "They gave me several different types of ants - I tried feeding rosevines to them all, and they all seemed to consume them fine, but I didn't want to release them until we met up together…"

"I think it's a great idea," Qian Shanyi said honestly, "There were ants back in that forest too, weren't they? Perhaps they are simply a natural predator of the vines. But… I think it still needs a bit of work."

Wang Yonghao wilted immediately. "Oh."

"You shouldn't feel disparaged, Yonghao," Qian Shanyi said, tapping a finger against her lips. "You asked the dwarves about a cave, and so they told you how to deal with a cave. But our world fragment is quite different, is it not?" She pointed one finger up into the clear blue sky. "Unlike a damp cave, there is plenty of light, which means plenty of grass - and so plenty for the ants to feast on. Not to mention our own food stores. I worry that if we simply released them, we would simply trade one infestation for another."

"So it's useless."

Qian Shanyi reached over and flicked Wang Yonghao on the forehead. "I said to not feel disparaged," she said. "It's the closest we've ever had to a solution for the rosevine problem, and you are the one who thought of it, so feel a little proud, will you?" She sighed, looking back at the little ant farm. "I see two ways to make it work - we'll either have to make sure the ants cannot breed outside of this farm, only forage - not too different from the paleworms, really… Or we'll have to find some other bugs to eat the ants, and then some frogs to eat those bugs, until we can keep everything under control. And in either case, we'll have to make sure the ants couldn't get to where they do not belong. I do not want to wake up with them crawling up my ass."

"And how would we do that?"

"No idea," Qian Shanyi said bluntly, "I don't know anything about ants. I presume this dwarf friend of yours can receive mail?"

"Not a friend."

"Not an answer."

Wang Yonghao sighed, rubbing his eyes. After her words, a hesitant smile seemed to come back to his lips. "I could write them a letter, but I don't know if they'll read it. They gave me the ants for free, but when I was leaving, I got the impression their hold didn't really want me back. But it's always hard to tell, with the dwarves."

"What gave you that impression?"

"They put me on a boat, and…" He made a vague gesture. "There was this demon beast, one they said had been around for months. I felt like they just used me to clear up one of their tunnels. They helped fight it, but I did most of the work."

"That could be just your luck."

"You kept telling me luck or not, there is always a cause."

"That I did," Qian Shanyi said thoughtfully. "Do you think a dwarf would see this the same way you do? Perhaps to them it's only natural that someone who is available should be put to use. But you would know better than me."

"Maybe," Wang Yonghao said, frowning slightly. "Yeah, maybe it's that. I don't know, it's always hard to tell."

"I think it doesn't hurt to send the letter," Qian Shanyi concluded. "We'll have to investigate this idea thoroughly. And really, excellent work out there."

"Thank you."

For a while, they stayed quiet. Qian Shanyi thought of how to turn the conversation to their own adventures, musing over what Wang Yonghao had told her. Little of it had brought new revelations, at least on the surface - but after her run in with the Crimson Cliff Catacombs, she was wary of simply dismissing these new events outright. If the Tumbling Hourglass Sect had a divination that matched Wang Yonghao's appearance, then perhaps it truly meant something.

The trouble was that so many things could mean something, and she could only investigate one lead at a time. Wang Yonghao had been having a new encounter once every couple weeks for the last decade of his life - if she'd tried to look into every single detail, those details would keep piling up until they buried her. Literally, perhaps, if the Heavens were still furious at her - it didn't escape her notice that while Wang Yonghao was away from her, the challenges he faced came less often.

Then again, perhaps it was simply random chance. With only a couple weeks of data, it was difficult to draw any conclusions. At least now Wang Yonghao was writing everything down, at her insistence, so his faulty memory should no longer matter quite as much.

"What kind of demon beast was it?" Qian Shanyi finally asked, deciding to put off her current line of thinking for later.

Wang Yonghao's lips curled in a disgusted grimace. "Some kind of slime, a blob two meters tall. Everything it passed over turned to stone. It was growing on, or around this sword, and I don't know if it was trying to eat it, or if the sword was its heart, or something else."

Hearing of a sword, Qian Shanyi leaned forwards excitedly. "And did you -"

"Yes, yes, I got the sword for you." Wang Yonghao sighed. "It's still dripping with the slime, but I didn't get a bad feeling from it, even if it's disgusting. I have it bottled up here somewhere."

According to him, Wang Yonghao stopped collecting every weapon he ran across years ago, and nowadays, only grabbed those that caught his eye. Qian Shanyi asked him to go back to his earlier ways, at least as long as the weapons looked safe enough to store. She'd figure out how to sell them later.

"Thank you for your sacrifice," she said sarcastically, "We had a bit of a run-in with your luck ourselves, too."

"You… did?"

"Mm," Qian Shanyi said, giving a little nod to Linghui Mei. "There was a ghost, but Mei ate it, so there is nothing to worry about. But there were a couple other things we found, ones that are a little bit more complicated…"

Slowly, carefully, Qian Shanyi told Wang Yonghao about the ghost - and about her theories about his luck, about the Crimson Cliff Catacombs, and even the Sleepless Night Sect, if it even existed. Wang Yonghao had grown more and more disconcerted with every word she said, but thankfully, he didn't outright freak out.

Qian Shanyi wasn't sure what to make of it all yet. It felt that with every week, with every question answered, Wang Yonghao's luck had raised a dozen more.

But as the saying went - two heads were better than one, and three were better than two. Now that they were back together, it was only a matter of time until everything would start to fall into place.

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