Chapter 83

Cry and the Echo

Yue stood atop the ramparts overlooking the dark abyss below, with the cold winds snapping back and forth like violent beasts. Though it was night, it seldom seemed so within the Cradle; all around she could see fires raging within various forts, and hear the distant echoes of screams and wails. Their fort wasn't the only one attacked--in fact, every single one visible from theirs seemed to be engaged in a fight. It seemed a miracle, now, how quickly they resolved theirs.

"Do you think that the General's a traitor?" Liang pulled her out. Glancing sideways, he seemed rather carefree, even slightly bored, as though this experience was completely normal to him. Her strange Junior Brother never spoke much of his experiences as a Disciple of a Tier IV Sect, and Yue herself never pressed for any detail. Here and there, though, she'd wonder just how many things he experienced to see the world the way he did.

"I don't know," she said. "If he is, why didn't he kill us?"

"Maybe to recruit us?"

"Maybe," she nodded, having thought so herself. "I still don't understand. Are attacks on forts frequent?"

"Somewhat," Liang replied. "I heard my former Master mention it once or twice. I was kind of hoping that it'd happen, to be honest."

"... what?"

"Nothing's quite as good at training muscles as fighting!"

"Huh, is that so?" she drew out her sword. "So, if I cut you into tiny little pieces, you'd consider that good muscle training?"

"Uh, calm down, Senior Sister. I was just joking..."

"Haah. Forget that. What will we do now? Should we go and help?"

"There's no need," Liang replied. "Nobody of import will die. Rather, I imagine that most Sect Disciples were like me--excited to test themselves. Chances were that the Others invaded simply to steal resources rather than to kill. They themselves should understand the best what kind of place this is. If they go overboard and actually kill most of the Disciples..."

"Sects would send someone powerful to avenge them?"

"Hm." Liang nodded. "There are few things in the world that Sects hate more than having their faces trampled on in public. It's not so much a loss of the Disciples, even, as every generation has its geniuses, as it is losing standing in the public eye."

"... that's depressingly close to my family," Yue sighed.

"Hm? Ah, right. Master mentioned your father tried to kill you, and that if I ever ran into him that I should kidnap him and take him to the forest for something Master called 're-education'. To be honest," Liang's expression suddenly darkened, prompting even Yue to shake and shiver. "When he said that... I, I don't think I've ever been more scared of anything in the world. Even that time I broke a precious vase of the Sect Master and thought I would legitimately be killed, I wasn't nearly as scared."

In-between recognizing that there was something even Liang feared, Yue heard the song of her heart. She never wanted that, not really; rather, in both her heart and her mind, she severed all the bonds she had with her family. That's why she no longer she introduced herself as a 'Lan'. And yet, her Master didn't seem to have moved on as she did. It... tangled her heart into a knot.

"You don't have to," she said.

"Hm? Have to what?"

"Kidnap my father," she said. "Rather, if you ever see him, just walk away. He's not worth it."

"... I can't do that," his voice grew serious all of a sudden. "Beyond having made a promise with Master, I'm angry."

"Angry?" she exclaimed softly, glancing at him.

"Someone dared raise their arm at my dearest Senior Sister," Ah... she sighed. "I don't care if its Gods or Ghosts or Fathers, they'll all meet my fist in equal measure!"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure. Go crazy."

**

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The entryway through the scalded bones of a forgotten beast was dark and cold. Looking at it from the outside was deceptive, as its size was far greater than it seemed. Even charging Qi into a ball of light wasn't enough to illuminate the entire pathway, only parts of it.

It was empty and windy, bereft of life, with the sides seeming made of strange stone that none of the four had ever seen.

Even Shen Tao was slowly developing a few doubts over this; though he spoke with confidence, the truth was that this was the only way he could think of to keep them temporarily safe. His idea was simply to leave a trace that they'd entered the inner parts of the realm so that the Heavenly Pavilion Disciples would think they died, and would leave them alone. At that point, they'd emerge into the outer parts once again, free of worry.

All the same, they'd still have to at least cross the entryway as it was possible for someone skilled with the Divine Sense to examine nearly a mile in a straight distance. If they simply stayed within the tunnel, they would be caught.

Because of that, he planned on mostly just skirting the outermost edges past the entrance for at least half a day before turning around and leaving. He figured that the number of treasures they had (well, mostly he had) would be enough to keep them safe, especially if they kept to themselves and didn't disturb anything or anyone.

From within the darkness, in the far distance, light suddenly flicker. As they walked toward it, it grew broader and larger, and before long it was a towering behemoth temporarily blinding them as they shuttered through the membrane.

Though he didn't know what to expect on the other end, as he opened his eyes and saw a cacophony of trees spreading out everywhere, he felt a bit... disappointed. It was a forest, an ordinary-seeming one at that, rather than something entirely macabre or strange, incomparable to the world outside.

"Be careful with your Divine Sense," Mei suddenly warned. "Stronger Demonic Beasts are extremely sensitive to it."

They clutched rather closely together and observed every angle; Shen Tao took the front, though he kept his senses sharpened everywhere. He already knew what level Mei was at, and he also witnessed Lya and Song fighting in the competition so was roughly aware of their states as well. While talented and definitely stronger, they were all woefully inexperienced; of the three, in fact, he suspected that Song would fare the best in an uncontrolled environment since he seemed to have fought by instinct the most, unlike the other two who seemed to have been the thinking types.

As they continued moving through the forest without encountering anything of the note--there were no divine medicinal herbs, no fruits, no mysterious Demonic Beasts, or any life at all, in fact--Shen Tao picked up on a rather... strange atmosphere between the three. Though they didn't speak, they'd eye each other, clearly communicating through telepathy.

"What are you three chattering about?" he couldn't take it anymore once they didn't even bother hiding it, breaking the silence and stopping.

"Uh..."

"Swear an Oath that you will take it to the grave," Mei said, startling him. He'd never seen her quite this serious, making him even more curious.

"Don't worry, I'm not a chatterbox--"

"--Swear an Oath," her voice cooled even further, and he felt the kind of pressure descend on top of him that wasn't related to strength or cultivation realm.

"I, uh, I swear upon my Heart and my Soul that I will not divulge any of what is to be said here to anyone outside this group, lest I be stripped of my reality."

"... fine," Mei sighed rather strangely, looking around between the trees once more before breaking the truth. "These trees, the layout, the appearance... we've, uh, we've seen it before. That was what we were talking about. Rather, we were trying to establish whether we were just projecting, but... no. Especially this place."

"What about this place?" Shen Tao asked, looking around. There wasn't anything particularly special about it, at least not to him; a slight slope, same-seeming trees, relatively short blades of grass... by all accounts, even using his Divine Sense to inspect every blade of grass individually, it was a beyond ordinary forest.

"During the attack on the Sect," Mei said. "We fled eastward."

"Yes, I remember," he said.

"Well, to be more precise," she added somewhat awkwardly. "We fled... into the Nameless Forest."

"!!!" Shen Tao's lips parted in shock as he stared at the three, connecting the dots. "This place... is the Nameless Forest...?"

"No, definitely not," Mei quickly shook her head.

"Then, what--"

"--it's an ersatz of it," she said. "A simulacrum of sorts, you could say. An exact copy, just without anything that made the Nameless Forest unique. This place, in the Forest itself, housed a wild orchard of Vermillion Heartfruits, and they grew by the dozens."

"What?!!" Shen Tao exclaimed, partly in shock, partly in pain, partly in horror, and partly in greed. Vermillion Heartfruits... legendary, divine fruits said to only grow from a corpse of a Vermillion Bird, and only one who died a natural death. The legend went that only four fruits could ever grow from one corpse, and consuming one fruit would reforge one's meridians and cause an effective rebirth. Naturally, it was just a legend, a leftover story of the Before-Age, as not a single Vermillion Heartfruit had ever been spotted in the entire Ashlands.

"Which is why I said this isn't the actual forest," she said. "But a copy of it. The question is... how is this possible?"

"Are you sure that you aren't just imagining it?" Shen Tao asked. His desire to go into the Forest grew more and more, perhaps overwhelming even his desire for revenge. From the sounds of it, it wasn't just Vermillion Heartfruits that they saw... there was a chance there were other, mythological herbs to be found in the forest's depths.

"No," Mei shook her head firmly. "If the layout is similar, should we check out... uh, the spots?"

"Hm," Lya and Song both nodded as the former added further. "Besides, we have been walking for nearly half an hour and still haven't encountered a single animal, let alone a Demonic Beast. Could it be that all the stories about this place are just made up lies?"

"... unlikely," Mei shook her head. "I have a theory, but I'm not sure yet. We should still stick together and be on the lookout. Since it's the Forest's replica... who knows what secrets it might hide?"