After their disappointing yet completely expected discovery, Yu Xiang and Huang Lei didn’t loiter about much around the barred doorway, deciding that it was better to rely their findings as fast as possible so that they could formulate a plan of action than to stay put and brood over their situation.

It took the duo another half a day to return to their companions, their trip back proving itself even more uneventful than the last, as they had no heart shacking information to share with one another and the message that they were carrying back to their fellow disciples hanging heavy on their minds.

Once they arrived at the hollowed out boulder that was their current hideout they were welcomed with trepidation, the tension rising gradually as the other cultivators sensed their morose mood.

“So, what did you find?” Su Rong was the first one to break the melancholic spell that had pervaded all of their spirits, his tone sounding strained and kept deliberately calm, the fiery cultivator having grown impatient now that he was back on his feet and mostly recovered from his ordeal, if still with one arm less than when he’d started this mission.

Huang Lei’s blue eyes didn’t meet the taller disciple’s own as she delivered the news, instead shifting around to every member of their group standing present before them, which was everyone bar Chun Dai and his two medics. “Our way out is barred.” She said gravely. “Some manner of spatial shielding is making it even impossible to give the hole in the membrane of the hidden world anything more than a cursory examination.” She said with a sense of finality.

At that point Yu Xiang stepped forward, unwilling to let the young lady bear the stares of their companions alone. As he stood at her side everyone’s gaze shifted to him, the young reincarnator’s emerald orbs staring back at every single pair of eyes with burning determination until they broke eye contact.

Su Rong was the last one whose gaze he met, and the fiery cultivator didn’t break under his stare, earning a nod from the green eyed cultivator.

He finally spoke then. “This means that our only way of returning to the outside is killing the beast that trapped us all here.”

They’d all already come to the same conclusion after hearing Huang Lei’s words, but hearing it coming from someone else’s lips, hearing it spoken in reality finally let that notion sink in.

Su Mai started cursing up a storm, her profanities so vulgar and varied that they made the young reincarnator raise an eyebrow in impressed surprise, while the noble lady standing at his side hid her face behind her fan and sent the younger woman a reproachful stare.

Feng Liu turned as white as bone, his body wavering slightly like a reed under a slight breeze, until he shakily bent down and seated himself on the cold hard ground, shallow and wheezy breaths tearing themselves from his mouth.

Su Rong seemed to be the one who’d taken it the best, his visage only paling slightly and an ugly frown taking over his face.

“Well.” He started tentatively. “I wanted to give that monster a piece of my mind anyway. Couldn’t have run away from it without getting some revenge first.” He said as heat slowly entered his voice.

Yu Xiang inwardly admired the gruff disciple’s ability to deal with despair and fear through copious amounts of righteous fury, though he would never say that to him, or to anyone for that matter. He wouldn’t be able to deal with the embarrassment if he did.

Zhen Ai had curled on herself protectively, her long fiery locks acting as a curtain that masked her expression from the outside world, but the small trembles that shook her body were more than enough for Yu Xiang and the others to see past her feeble attempts of hiding her emotions, especially since she was leaning heavily against her cousin.

Speaking of Zhen Yin, she was the only one that seemed unaffected by the news, at least she would look like that for those who hadn’t spent much time around her.

Her eyes were wide as saucers and devoid of light, her body was rigid and her shoulders were curved in defeat.

“Well…” The wild haired red head mused emotionlessly. “Guess we are fucked then.” She said, her voice sounding lifeless.

Her comment immediately brought the mood even further down, which made the young reincarnator grimace in discomfort. He’d expected something like this, but things were looking even more dire than he’d anticipated.

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Fortunately, Lin Fen and Jin Shui entered from one of the adjacent rooms right then, presumably the one that was acting as an improvised infirmary for the injured core disciple.

“Not necessarily.” Interjected the young beastfolk, his grey furred ears and his long tail standing straight up.

The burgeoning alchemist and the novice healer at his side held a burning determination in their gazes, which immediately set everyone else straight, the mere possibility of a way out enough to inject some much needed vitality in their souls.

Yu Xiang smiled slightly to himself. Sometimes he forgot that his companions were not battle hardened veterans but young men and women who’d rarely been in true mortal peril.

He should’ve expected such a severe reaction to what they understandably perceived as an impossible mission, as their perspective on life was bound to be wildly different to that of someone who’d already died once. Not that he himself was eager to take another trip into the afterlife, but it would be pure denial to ignore the way such an experience had marked him.

Jin Shui passed one of his hands through his shaggy mane, a small weary sigh escaping his lips. “So.” He began. “This is what we managed to come up with.”

After that, the tired looking cultivator started illustrating the plan he and Yu’s oldest companion had been working on while he and Huang Lei were on their mission.

At the start, Lin Fen had theorized that he’d only need one of those unripened fruits to brew an elixir or a pill that could counteract the venom flowing through Chun Dai’s veins, but once he’d spoken with Jin such a naive idea was almost immediately dispelled.

While the vital energy held inside the fruit would indeed be enough to flush the stoic swordsman’s system, that energy would simply be too unfocused to actually have the desired effect, at which point they started to re-examine the injured cultivator to come up with a workable recipe that they could use to create an antidote.

Most of the ingredients were already in their possession, as they’d taken what they had available on hand in consideration while coming up with a recipe, but still, there was one other ingredient, aside from the fruit itself, that they’d need to create their envisioned remedy.

As much of the spiders’ venom as they could gather.

They needed it for two reasons. The first reason was that they could glean precious information from samples of venom, even if it didn’t come directly from the spider queen but one of its spawns, as the venom was more than likely the same if extremely reduced in potency and lacking any spiritual refinement.

The second reason was to act as a kind of identifier, something that would direct the vital energy contained by their theoretical medicine to attack the venom inside Chun Dai’s body directly.

This, of course, meant that they would need to confront the no doubt angry hordes of spiritual spiders in combat, a prospect that seemed not to preoccupy the other disciples quite as much as it did before, the ray of hope that they’d grasped lending them a boost of courage that may very well be the catalyst to their survival.

Yu Xiang didn’t share the same enthusiasm, and after a few moments of silence, he slipped away from the group, leaving his companions to discuss strategies while he entered the lone core disciple’s room.

Chun Dai was sitting on a thick blanket with his legs crossed, his back leaning against the stone that made up the walls of the artificial cavern. His eyes were closed but the young reincarnator knew he wasn’t truly asleep as the shroud of concealment that had kept them hidden thus far was still wrapped around their hideout.

“Senior brother.” He whispered gently, wary of disturbing the older man too much.

The icy eyed swordsman turned slightly, his eyes remaining closed but his attention settling firmly upon him.

“I assumer you already know what we were discussing amongst ourselves, and what course of action we decided to take.” The core disciple nodded slightly, confirming the green eyed cultivator’s suspicion that he’d been keeping an eye, and maybe even an ear, over all of them while he rested.

At that point, Yu Xiang, kneeled before the older cultivator, which garnered even more of Chun Dai's attention. "I would like to share with my companion what I have learned about Intent." He said softly. "The trials we will undertake shortly will test us greatly, and such an advantage could prove crucial for their continued survival."

The swordsman contemplated his words for a few moments before responding. "Are you asking for my permission?" The man sounded weaker than Yu had ever heard him.

The green eyed cultivator nodded, bowing his head and waiting for the stronger cultivator's decision. Yu Xiang held no illusion about his own power, he was more than aware that even as weak as he seemed now, Chun Dai could easily stop him from divulging what he'd learned from the sect's scroll with barely any effort.

Thankfully, such an outcome didn't come to pass. "Granted." Was his singular answer.

A small sigh of relief escaped the young reincarnator as he picked himself up from the hard floor, but before he could leave Chun Dai briefly spoke once again.

"You have one week from tomorrow." He said before he lowered his head and returned to his quiet meditation.

Yu Xiang's heart started beating faster. That was more time than he'd dared to hope.

Silently, he made his way back to his companions, who were still deep into their discussion, arguing over how to better obtain as much of the spiritual beasts' poison as they could while at the same time searching for the spiritual fruits.

Briefly, he contemplated immediately breaching the topic of the power of Intent, but ended up deciding to wait for the coming day's morning.

After all, they would be needing as much of their strength as they could gather for the kind of intensive training he was envisioning.