The full scale of what has happened to Greenwater Oasis only becomes clearer and more apparent as they walk through what was once a village. The results of whatever disaster occurred here are horrifying - and beautiful.

He hates himself for thinking that there could be anything beautiful in what has happened here, but the glass is… peerless. Smooth and crystal clear, with details so fine and life-like, it's as though the people here were still alive. He half expects them to continue the movements they've so clearly been frozen in.

Which is probably just to be expected of whatever happened. Whatever transmuted the world to glass did so perfectly.

"I don't suppose you've found anything yet?" Kong Meiling calls, fanning herself delicately in what some might mistake as an attempt to ward off the heat. He can see the way she's holding it, and knows it's not the heat that concerns her. She's worried they'll be attacked. "Because I'll tell you what I see. What I see is something far beyond us."

She's not wrong. She rarely is. Whatever happened here took power that far eclipses all of them put together. The idea that there is anything a group of Disciples in the Foundation Establishment Stage could do is laughable. But that doesn't mean he's not going to try.

"Even if we cannot reverse this, we can at least find some clues." Truthfully, he's beginning to doubt even that. Everything is… perfect. If it were not for Batu's horrified reaction, the fear in his family's voices, and the knowledge that this was supposed to be Greenwater Oasis, he might've allowed himself to believe this was just a very strange work of art.

Left in the middle of a desert. For no reason at all.

Well. Maybe he wouldn't have.

The point was that if there was anything left behind by whoever did this, it would've been intentional. He couldn't fathom doing this by accident.

He pauses for a moment as he passes what looks to have been an old man stepping out of his hut. It's not the sight that makes him pause, but rather a scent that picks up on a faint breeze. It's… not a scent he can say he has ever smelled before. It's weak, even to his nose. It's… sour? He's not sure what it is, but it's the closest thing to a trail he has so he follows it.

Seeing his decidedly more purposeful stride, Kong Meiling and Tian Mingfei fall in behind, one cautious and careful, and the other more wondrous and amazed.

He follows the trail down the… road? Path? He skirts the oasis - he's not sure what it means that the only thing that didn't get transmuted was the water and he's not keen to find out just yet - and continues on until they finally reach a small hut on the edge of the village. The scent is strong enough now that he feels the urge to cover his nose - it's built to something that almost burns now.

"I feel something," Tian Mingfei pipes up, nose wrinkled a little as they study the fairly unassuming little hut, "It feels… powerful."

She doesn't really have to say it. He's pretty sure they can all feel it. Zhou Cheng is not confident they will find the answers they seek in that hut but he is confident that they'll get at least something. "I'll go in alone," he announces, "If anything happens - run and tell the Sect."

Kong Meiling considers this for all of a second and then simply declares "No."

"No? What do you mean 'no', you are not-"

"Tian Mingfei, hold him."

Before he can even realise what is happening, the iron hands of Tian Mingfei clamp onto his arms. "Sorry, Brother," she adds, although she doesn't particularly sound sorry.

Zhou Cheng is too shocked to really react properly - what grasp he had on the situation has fled.

"I will go in," Kong Meiling continues, snapping her fan open so she can peer at him over the edge with her cold stare, "You are not suited to fights in enclosed spaces if anything happens - and if any one of us is able to escape if things go wrong, then it is me."

Zhou Cheng wants to complain - that's not how it's supposed to go! He is the leader, so he walks into the danger! He bears the responsibility!

But Kong Meiling is already heading into the building, and Tian Mingfei is not loosening her grip at all. "You've put yourself in enough danger already," she says simply, "Be honest. Have you truly recovered from before?"

He opens his mouth to object, to claim that he's fine… but she's right. It took him a day to wake up, and a day to walk on his own power. He's pretty sure if he tried to run, properly, he'd get tired within an hour or two, and he doesn't quite trust his meridians to hold out if he has to do anything particularly intensive.

"... You can put me down," he mutters instead, trying to sound dignified and not petulant, "I'm not going to chase after her."

She obliges, at least, and he dusts himself off before a thought strikes him.

"Surely you could escape if things went wrong as well?" Tian Mingfei is not weak by any means. She is agile, and quick. Frankly, if any of them are suited to fighting in an enclosed space, it is probably her.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

"That is true," she admits cheerfully, "But I do not think Pretty Sister was concerned with my ability to escape but my willingness."

He stares blankly. "You would… fight whatever is down there? Even feeling its power and seeing what it might have done?"

"Maybe! I cannot say without facing it, but I will not deny the possibility out of hand."

He has no idea what to say to that. The only thoughts that come to his mind are that she is mad - but that doesn't feel very fair to say, given he was perfectly willing to face down whatever is down there without even knowing what it was.

Before he can follow that train of thought further, Kong Meiling re-emerges.

She is alive, which is an immediate plus in his view, but her grim expression suggests that maybe the news she bears is bad. Kong Meiling is not a very expressive person - or she is, but every expression she makes is carefully chosen and controlled to project an image. That she is choosing an expression belonging on someone about to tell the Emperor that the Empire has fallen is not a good sign at all.

"It is easier if you see for yourself," she says simply, which is not alarming in itself, but it is certainly not reassuring.

"If that is your judgement," he replies, and when she turns to head back in, they follow.

----------------------------------------

There were any number of things Zhou Cheng had quietly begun to expect when they stepped down there, but what was clearly a cultivator's workshop was not one of them.

In hindsight, it made an awful amount of sense.

From what he can see, when he is not trying his best to stop his eyes from watering at the smell, is that a cultivator was working on something here. The cultivator, he is quite sure, is technically still here as is… his project.

It sits within his hands. A crystalline prism of swirling colours, glowing with power that he can feel on his skin.

And it stinks.

"Well," he manages to force out, doing his best not to run out of there and try and breathe in the comparatively cleaner air of the Glass Oasis, "That… does seem to be the source of everything."

It might not be, but given everything else, he doesn't think any of them would bet against it. It is the only thing that isn't glass (although it isn't that dissimilar), next to the water. It thrums with Qi, even now. And the cultivator was very clearly in the middle of something when it… well.

Zhou Cheng hopes it went wrong, because he doesn't want to imagine what kind of person would desire this result.

"Should we retrieve it then? I'm sure Elder Chu would reward us considerably if we returned it to her."

She would, in all likelihood. He might not even have to go through with the duel. As pleasing as it would be to cave in Lei Ming's face for all the pain and suffering he has brought on, Zhou Cheng would rather just have Hei Lian back and leave if it came down to it.

"Can we not use it to reverse whatever has happened?"

Both of them give him a look that makes him regret opening his mouth. "Yes," Kong Meiling drawls, "Let us experiment with the incredibly powerful and dangerous artifact that may or may not have turned the Oasis into glass."

"It was just a suggestion…" he mutters, trying (and failing) not to sound mulish about it. "... Is it safe to touch?"

Kong Meiling purses her lips. "I hadn't tried. Perhaps if we-"

Before she can finish that thought, Tian Mingfei is already reaching out. Both of them shout in alarm, reaching to stop her, she has already touched it - and there is a bright flash.

To Zhou Cheng's incredible relief, when his vision clears, Tian Mingfei has not been turned into glass or anything dreadful. To his equal dismay, she has, however, fallen completely unconscious.

It is not, by any means, a good start to things.

"Is she alright?" he calls, rushing over to her. He falters when he actually reaches her, forced to realise he has no medical training at all. He has no idea what he's supposed to do.

"She's unconscious! Does she seem-" Kong Meiling bites off whatever she was going to say, and he in turn swallows his own retort. She's concerned, he can see that. They both are.

Fighting isn't going to help Tian Mingfei right now.

"How is her Qi?" she says after a moment, and at least one of them has an idea of what to do.

He's not really sure how to go about feeling someone else's Qi flow, but there's no time like the present to learn. He understands how to regulate his own Qi well enough, so if he just… places his hands on her forehead and stomach - her upper and lower dantians - surely he can get a feel of how she's doing?

"It's… flowing?" It feels wild, but controlled. Smooth, but fierce. "It's-I don't know if this is normal or not!" Compared to his own, its wildly different, but they are entirely different cultivators - that is only to be expected!

Kong Meiling does not respond and when he glances over at her, there is an expression on her face he cannot read properly. She seems shocked, but he cannot say why. After a moment, she seems to come to herself. "The flow. Is it smooth? No blockages?"

He nods.

"Then she should be healthy enough." She sounds confident enough in that diagnosis, so he will just have to trust her. Not that he really had any option otherwise. "The greater concern is what we're going to do about the… crystal. If just touching her did that, then it may be safer to leave it and just inform the Sect."

It's a valid suggestion, but it doesn't sit right with him. "What if someone else comes across it? They could get hurt. Make things worse… or even misuse it." The idea of leaving it in the hands of the Sect is… less appealing than he would like it to be. His opinion of the Elder's judgement has taken a sharp dive as of late.

But, he concedes, they are the only people we know who could handle something of this power… and they aren't evil. It's a bit of a low bar to clear, in his opinion, but barring any other option, it is the only bar they have to clear.

As much as he might like to hoard a treasure for himself - even rationalised as just making sure it wouldn't be misused by others - Zhou Cheng doesn't trust anything that could turn a village to glass.

"Someone has already gotten hurt after coming across it," Kong Meiling says stiffly. "If it assuages you, we can put up a sign."

It would not. Perhaps if he wrapped it in a cloth…? No, he's not confident enough in that. If he used the-no, he could drop it… "There has to be a way to safely handle it. He was doing it somehow." He gestures lightly to the petrified - glassified? - cultivator, still cradling the crystal in his hands.

"I rather think there was nothing safe about how he was handling it."

Despite the situation, that gets a small snort out of him. "A fair point," he concedes, eyeing their surroundings for any clues. It's made all the more difficult by the fact that everything is glass now. The tools, the tomes, the talismans. All glass. If only he had a way to ask him…

… There's an idea. "I'm going to try something," he declares.

Kong Meiling gives him a quizzical look. "Should I get to a safe distance, then?"

"If it makes you feel any better - but I'm not going to touch the crystal." He approaches anyway, and very carefully positions himself. One hand on the cultivator's glass forehead. Another at his stomach. Upper and lower dantians.

He closes his eyes. And breathes.

There is a presence in the glass. It is faint, but present. He has maybe a moment to be relieved this is working when the presence reacts to him.

"Well, well, well. Aren't you a bold one, brat?"