Qian Shanyi woke up in a great mood. Her hands were already feeling a lot better, nothing had conspired to kill her during the night, and most importantly, she had something to do.

Something that would get her mind off worrying about what might be going on with Wang Yonghao and Linghui Mei, at least. If they got caught, she wouldn’t even know, not until Wang Yonghao deemed it safe to open the entrance again. If she didn’t run, and her nature was revealed, Linghui Mei would be killed on the spot.

Enough about those two.

She knew how to make dead air. She knew how much dead air would make her pass out. All that was left was to figure out how to get rid of it.

This called for more experimentation.

First idea: if fire spiritual energy created dead air, could other forms of spiritual energy make it vanish? Qian Shanyi filled five glass flasks with dead air, and left four of them within other nodes of the chiclotron, and one outside, just to see what would happen.

While she was waiting, she took down the cauldron, though she didn’t bother dismantling the rest of her contraption, or dragging the glassware away to storage. She was mostly just worried her hang line would snap. This glassware could stand up to some punishment, but it was best not to try her luck.

Then she made breakfast and checked on the rabbits again, making sure their water trough was correctly getting re-filled from a blue water tear stone. All together, it took her an hour, and she figured it was time to go back to her flasks.

The flasks went back into a fire node, one by one, while she carefully watched out for a flame. No spark.

Couldn’t be that easy, huh.

The spiritual energy did precisely nothing. Nor did the gas dissipate on its own.

Next idea: the world fragment was filled with all kinds of treasures, artifacts and rare Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures, now stored all around the chiclotron. Any one of them could have secretly been converting dead air back into regular air, and they wouldn’t even know. She brought along all the larger flasks, beakers, tubes and valves, and started going around the chiclotron, separating the treasures into individual containers, and filling them with dead air from her pump.

Taking them out of the chiclotron would somewhat unbalance the flow of spiritual energy - but not too much, and only for a short while. Qian Shanyi made sure to split them up between different nodes just to be safe.

The work was easy, but unfortunately, also very repetitive. It let Qian Shanyi’s mind wander back to the question of Fang Jiugui. They came so close to being captured - but evaded his notice in the end. What did that lead to?

He would almost certainly come in contact with Jian Shizhe. If he found a way to borrow a spirit hunter dog - he would likely have their scent too, from their room, their bedsheets. But they did not leave an easy trace for him to follow, which would leave him guessing. Did they go upstream, downstream, or tried to huddle in place?

The logical choice was to head upstream - after all, going downstream would have brought them closer to Golden Rabbit Bay, and thus to Qian Shanyi’s sect. Really, it was the obvious choice.

Ordinarily, this sort of simple logic would have been exactly the reason why Qian Shanyi would have headed downstream. The raw distance didn’t matter - tricking Fang Jiugui was far more valuable. Even passing directly through Golden Rabbit Bay would not have been out of the question in order to throw off pursuit - after all, nobody would expect her to do that.

But these were not ordinary circumstances. With Wang Yonghao’s luck, Fang Jiugui was almost guaranteed to guess correctly where they headed - and the closer they got to the bay, the more other pieces the Heavens could bring into play. If Yonghao’s luck pulled an elder of her sect closer to them, one that was out on a trip to one of the nearby towns - everything would become exponentially more difficult.

This meant going upstream was the only viable choice.

Fortunately, they had one advantage. Heavens might have been guiding Fang Jiugui, but he didn’t know this. He couldn’t blindly trust his instincts - he would have to meticulously check every place where they could have gotten off, every ship they might have boarded. Assuming he had a dog - for he surely would - checking them would be quick, but quick did not mean instant. There was a question of balance in front of him - how thoroughly could he afford to check for scents, how many places could he search through without taking too much time.

It was doubtful that Fang Jiugui would check for trails away from the coast - after all, if he did that in every town, he would waste far too much time. As long as Wang Yonghao walked on air and only touched down a good distance away, his scent should pass below notice. But that in turn produced another unavoidable loophole - if Fang Jiugui happened to run into someone who just happened to have seen Wang Yonghao’s air walking technique, and he happened to ask them about it, he would know they passed through.

Ultimately, they just had to hope.

Qian Shanyi breathed out, focusing on her work again. Going over her past plans for the tenth time in a row was useless, especially when she was stuck here. Best to deal with what she could actually affect.

Not that her experiments were going any better. She finished her first circle around the chiclotron, and found absolutely nothing of use. Half a day gone entirely to waste.

Qian Shanyi frowned. She had only tested about a third of all treasures so far, and many of the ones that were left - axes, long swords and spears - were simply too large to fit into any of her glassware, not unless she wanted to take out a special glass blowing torch. Really, it wasn’t unlikely that she simply missed something.

Still, to find nothing at all...

It was, ultimately, a question of scale. She knew that dead air came close to knocking her out when it replaced about 5% of the regular air, and the world fragment was enormous. And yet last time, it all dissipated within about a day. So what could make this much dead air dissipate? If every second treasure were to convert dead air back into air - it would have explained some of it. But if it was only a couple rare, isolated treasures, it would start to beggar belief.

Perhaps she was missing something obvious. But what even was there, aside from the treasures?

Qian Shanyi threw a glance around the world fragment, scanning the wide grass field and the empty blue sky. It all seemed so… Normal. No different to any other lawn anywhere in the world, really. Was there really something here that could deal with this exotic dead air problem?

Still, better to test than to be ignorant. She gathered a collection of samples from all across the world fragment, adding them to the next set of flasks - stone, dirt, clay, and even a bit of grass, just to round out the possibilities. Finally, she picked a flask with a valve, and, using a bit of clay, secured it to the edge of the world, the neck pointed outwards. It seemed unlikely, but perhaps dead air reacted with the edge itself.

Then she went back to testing the treasures. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Noth -

Qian Shanyi almost jumped when she finally saw a spark in one of the flasks. It contained a chunk of Long Haired Pumice, a wood-type treasure in the shape of a porous, purple stone that grew long strands of living, green moss out of its pores.

She raised the flask to her eyes. The moss was looking a bit singed now, but it would recover.

This little thing, purifying the entire world fragment?

Still, she found what she was looking for. They had three Long Haired Pumice stones - Qian Shanyi made a mental note to never sell them, and went back to the rest of the flasks, just for the sake of completeness.

And then, she saw another spark, one that baffled her far, far more. It came from a flask with completely ordinary grass, one she simply dug out of the ground.

What.

Qian Shanyi glanced around the sixty meter wide circle of…well, mostly grass that covered the ground of the world fragment.

It would certainly explain how it could purify the entire world fragment so quickly, since there is so much of it.

It still seemed a little unbelievable. Ordinary grass?

Is it really ordinary?

She shook the small clump of grass and earth out of the flask and closed her palms around it, forming a seal, and focused on pulling all the spiritual energy out of it. It came out easily - none of it sticking to the grass itself.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

It’s not even a spiritual herb? It’s really, truly, simple grass?

Opening her hands, Qian Shanyi looked at the clump of grass a little closer. It wasn’t a single type of grass - but rather several different plants, all growing together without any particular pattern. Perhaps only one of them was responsible? A special type of grass, growing exclusively within Wang Yonghao’s world fragment?

She shook her head, and got up off the ground, leaving the flask behind. She had her answer - and it was already getting late. She’d finish the last third of the chiclotron treasures tomorrow, and if she’d have the time, think whether there would be a point in testing the grass any further.

Then again, she already knew how she would decide. The alternative was either worrying about the others, or reading more romance - and that was no choice at all.

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

The world fragment’s entrance opened four days later.

“We have a problem,” Wang Yonghao said, dropping out of the sky, Linghui Mei riding on his back.

Qian Shanyi raised her head from the ground, looking up at the pair. “Fang Jiugui?” she said, closing her book and setting it aside. “Or something new?”

She was forcing herself through the final bits of the Spring of Plums, which was going about as well as it possibly could. She had been hoping that by spreading out her reading throughout the days, she might overcome her disdain for the genre, much like ingesting small doses of poison over time could grant a certain resistance to it. No such luck.

Worse still, she was starting to suspect that she would have to re-read the book in its entirety to truly absorb the articles, the prospect of which had already filled her with dread.

“It’s… hard to say,” Wang Yonghao hedged, quickly reaching the ground. Linghui Mei hopped off.

“Is it going to screw us over in the next hour?”

She didn’t get up, mostly because she was simply too lazy to do so. Her hands had already healed up, even though they were still quite pink and tender. She even cultivated a bit last night.

“No, master,” Linghui Mei said, giving Qian Shanyi a short bow. “We made sure we were safe enough to sleep first. We should have a couple hours.”

“In that case let’s share the news while we eat,” Qian Shanyi said, finally getting up on her feet. “I’ll start. Three rabbits are pregnant, the beans are growing well, and I discovered the deep mysteries of dead air.”

“Mysteries?”

“Don’t worry about it. Now what was that about a problem?”

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

The problem was Wang Yonghao’s luck.

After they left Qian Shanyi alone in Wang Yonghao’s inner world, Linghui Mei and Wang Yonghao joined a caravan of pilgrims, on the way to a small neighboring town. There, they split off, changed clothes, and crossed to the other side of the river, breaking any possible scent trail, and took a ride on a fishing boat upstream, from where they continued on foot.

It was perfect. Even with a tracking dog and a flying sword, it would have been almost impossible to find.

Then in the next town over some passing cultivator just happened to mistake Wang Yonghao for someone they swore vengeance against. The idiot practically challenged Yonghao to a duel on the spot, and it took many hours - and the involvement of the imperial authorities - to get him to back down, and admit Wang Yonghao was not the man he was seeking.

It made a splash, and Wang Yonghao had to show his seal. Dozens of people saw it, and inevitably, the rumors of it would spread.

All their cunning and trickery? For nothing. They had to flee right away, only stopping three towns over, in a small tavern far away from any roads. They doubled over their tracks several times, skipping miles across the air using Wang Yonghao’s air walking technique to break the scent trail - with any hope, even if Fang Jiugui was nearby, it would take him a while to find them. That was when they told Qian Shanyi what happened.

Their sleep was uneasy, but it was also necessary. This chase was not going to end tonight; they had to take their rest when they could. When they woke up - only a couple hours later in the outside world - Linghui Mei stayed back in the world fragment, while Qian Shanyi and Wang Yonghao set off at speed through the forest.

After the duel debacle, they wanted to gain some distance, at least enough that a building foundation cultivator could not physically see them from the air. But Mei could not move quickly, not without transforming into a fox and leaving her musk behind - and when a spirit hunter was only days behind, it was far too much risk. With Wang Yonghao skipping above the forest to break the scent trail every thirty minutes, carrying Qian Shanyi in his hands - it should have made their trail difficult to follow, if in other ways.

They soon reached another town, one that was set on a different tributary of the Golden Snake River - and this time, they were twice as careful. For an entire day, they followed the river, even getting a ride on a raft with some lumberjacks. They made sure to dress as commoners and not stand out. They avoided all imperial officials - just on the off chance any one of them could have been past friends with Fang Jiugui, from back when he served as a spirit hunter. As much as they could, they stayed above the river, to make sure no real scent trail was left behind.

As far as Qian Shanyi could tell, they succeeded as well as they could have.

Soon they returned to the main river, back on their original path. Two more days passed quietly, with Qian Shanyi switching with Linghui Mei to help Wang Yonghao check for scents. They covered their tracks well - but it also meant they could not take a ship, not without putting their seals to paper, or risking being discovered as illegal stowaways. Nor could they hire a thunderhorse.

They could move quickly, or they could move invisibly. Never both.

Then, while they were stopping in a tavern to rest, it was faced with a demonic cultivator attack. They knew nothing of it, of course, staying in their world fragment - until they came out directly into the middle of an inferno, other cultivators fighting for their lives all around them. They just barely managed to avoid the world fragment itself being revealed.

But they could not avoid the questioning of spirit hunters. They could not avoid the rumors. Even if they gave false names, and claimed to carry no seals - they could not hide the techniques they used to stay alive.

Ripples on the surface of a pond. And somewhere out there, fisherman Fang Jiugui, waiting for them to cast his line.

Once again they fled - but this time, from far above the river, they saw a dot. A cultivator on top of a flying sword, heading to the town they just left.

It was too far away to tell who it was. But somehow, they already knew.

Another day of flight. A careful dance across the boats, the carts, the forest paths. Their trail, surely hidden beyond any reasonable hope of discovery.

Surely.

“This isn’t sustainable,” Qian Shanyi said grimly, once they reconvened within Wang Yonghao’s inner world, to sleep once again. “Even taking a nap here is too much of a risk, apparently.”

“What do you propose?” Wang Yonghao said, his voice completely exhausted. Out of the three of them, he was the worst off. At least Linghui Mei and Qian Shanyi could switch off, take a break within his inner world for a while. He had no such luck.

Qian Shanyi sighed, pursing her lips. She already thought through this argument during the day. It was presenting it to the others that was going to be difficult, if she didn’t want to be rejected outright.

“Think of Fang Jiugui as if he was tied to us by a long spring,” Qian Shanyi finally said. “As long as we move slowly, no matter how far away we get, the spring will always pull him right back to us. Instead, we have to move fast enough to snap this spring entirely.”

“What?” Wang Yonghao sighed, rubbing his face. “Shanyi - Just explain straightforwardly, please. I am too tired to deal with metaphors.”

Qian Shanyi nodded, and gestured to Wang Yonghao. “Your luck is the spring,” she said, “The closer Fang Jiugui is to us, the easier it is for it to affect him, create some event to pull him closer. We need to move far enough away that this will stop - which means either a ship, a thunderhorse, or perhaps a river dragon, if we are being exotic. But to hire those, we would need to use our seals, which leave their own trail. This is why we are stuck.”

“Yeah. And?”

Qian Shanyi sighed. So far, this was all simple logic. “We need to make pseudonym seals,” she continued, “Fang Jiugui is no longer a spirit hunter - he would have no way of knowing who was behind them. We would be free to hire a ship, free to flee as far away as we want. But making these seals would take at least a month.” She made a sharp cutting gesture through the air. “There is only one solution here, no matter how difficult it may seem. We have to split.”

“Spit?” Wang Yonghao asked, staring at her in confusion. “What do you mean, split?”

“We could deal with Fang Jiugui’s pursuit,” Qian Shanyi continued, “We could deal with your luck. It’s dealing with them together that is impossible. So, I think I should stay in one area and make the seals, while you circle around, pull Fang Jiugui away. Without your luck there to skew the odds…” She sighed, sweeping her long hair away. “I think I could stay hidden for a month.”

She expected indignation, or at least resistance. It didn’t come.

“You really think this would work?” Wang Yonghao said curiously. “Pseudonym seals?”

“Yes,” Qian Shanyi said, then took a careful step back, making a casual gesture. “Obviously I do not think we should do this immediately. Not in this town, at least. We should do this smart. But I don’t see another way out - and the time of year favours us.”

“Because of the ghost festival?” Linghui Mei said.

“Yes,” Qian Shanyi said, turning to the jiuweihu. She didn’t expect her to put it together this quickly. “We’d have plenty of cover.”

Wang Yonghao thought for a moment, then nodded. “Yeah,” he said, “okay. If you think this is a good idea, then I trust you.”

Qian Shanyi raised an eyebrow at him. “You trust me? Since when?”

“Since… a long time? And why wouldn’t I?!” Wang Yonghao said, throwing his hands up indignantly. “Sure, if you were about to suggest something insane again, I’d be worried. But this sounds pretty normal, at least by your standards. So why shouldn’t I trust you?”

“Hm.” Qian Shanyi said, then paused. She really didn’t expect this. “Thank you.”

“I should come with you as well,” Linghui Mei said suddenly. “I could help.”

“I’ll be -” Qian Shanyi began.

Fine alone, was what she wanted to say. She wanted to say Wang Yonghao would need her more, that she could help him bait Fang Jiugui, or at least manage the inner world. That she’d be safer here, frankly.

Then an image rose from her memory. Her, stuck in that room with Jian Wei, knowing she dug her own grave. Helpless.

Alone.

Qian Shanyi swallowed. “I’ll be glad for your help,” she said instead. “It would be a good opportunity for me to teach you to cultivate, as well.”

Linghui Mei bowed to her. The gesture seemed almost casual to her now.

Qian Shanyi breathed out. “Alright,” she said. “If we are doing this, there is a lot we will need to prepare. Mei - bring me some paper, if you won’t mind?”

Together, they settled down around the kitchen - to eat, and scheme anew.