Reply - Masked Meeting.

Shu He sat on a felled log with a scroll in front of him, he was looking over the <<Earth's Pulse>> technique while he was waiting, he had learned the technique but wanted to look into the specifics of how it worked.

He had an idea to further make use of it in the future, but there would be a few things he would need to work out before that, one of those 'thing's was the very sight he had, his 'sense' that he attained the moment he obtained his Golden Qi.

It had grown with his cultivation, the range had increased and his control over his senses has improved also; It had also morphed and adapted, the sense splicing was a representation of that, he wasn't sure on the conditions for its evolution, but he knew it wasn't a simple technique.

From the start he didn't even 'learn' it, it just happened, if anything it was an innate ability that belonged to him and him alone, so he could do nothing but experiment.

"Hm?" He suddenly looked up at the mid-day sky, he had been waiting here for nearly half a day, so the sun had long since arisen to a new day.

A faint blue light grew in the distance, soon entering his 'sense' causing him to stand up with his hands out to receive it, soon it arrived before him in the form of a small origami bird that gently landed in his hands and unfurled into a charm, the same one he had sent out before.

This charm worked by marking two people, the person who made it and the user so it can act as a speedy correspondence, but they were expensive to make; At least that's what Shu He had learned.

He held the charm up, and a voice entered his head.

"Continue with your mission, we will send people to deal with everything else".

Shu He's brows furrowed for a second before he stored the charm back in his robe, it was usable more than once after all.

"I thought they'd meet with me at least… Won't I encounter those three again if I keep going?" He spoke to himself in doubt.

Then he sighed as he stretched, wiping the morning dew off his robes, and adjusting his hat.

"Guess I'll do as they say".

The hideout would be dealt with, at least that would give him some peace of mind.

The idea that, that horrid thing still exists down there made him sick, he was sure the sect would deal with it appropriately though, maybe they could find something he missed as well.

He turned west, picking up his backpack and beginning to walk off.

It was quite a distance until he would reach Sunnyside Town, there weren't any other villages on the route he was going to take so it would just be him and the wilderness for a few weeks.

…

Not too far off, beneath the ruins of an old town that had been overrun by wildlife and plants, a meeting was taking place beneath the dirt, through a set of old, worn passageways was a dark room.

One person wearing a black mask and cloak sat leisurely on a large chair, his hands clasped as his long legs stretched out.

The other three were knelt towards him, two behind with the larger figure in front.

They all wore similar outfits, the only difference was the silver necklace wrapped around the man's bony neck that glimmered eerily in the dark, at the end of the necklace was a barely expose orb of pure blackness.

"So? You didn't get the lens?" The sitting man spoke, his voice seemingly casual but filled with a chilling undertone.

"…No, we failed" The lead man answered, regret stained his voice.

"Why?"

"We were using the tool you gave us… sir; But whoever took it erased the binding mark, we couldn't find them afterwards" He explained, his hand shaking slightly as it rubbed on the floor.

"I'm well aware of that, but you know what direction they headed in, why didn't you stay on their trail?".

"We managed to get some of the villagers from Bluemill to talk, a traveller wearing a conical hat and brown cloak with long bronze hair travelled through that day, but he left suddenly" The younger voice explained.

"He probably realised you were tracking him" The sitting man receded his legs before leaning on his knees "So why didn't you managed to find him with that information?".

"We didn't know where he went after that, the rain started coming down hard which erased any tracks he might have left".

"No one in that town saw or spoke with him about where he was going?" The necklace wearing man's voice dipped slightly, he was becoming impatient.

"We interrogated some of the villagers, even the people he spoke to only talked about him leaving to the west, the were a couple villages in that direction so we visited both… and nothing".

"So we headed to Redaloy afterwards and rested in the hideout".

"Even though you should have been chasing them down?" There was a slight crack as the arm of the chair he was sitting on split.

"I-I needed to refill on Qi, I wouldn't have lasted much longer".

"So what?" The man sat on the chair asked, his eyes lacking even an ounce of empathy as they questioned the man in front.

"We wouldn't have found them even if we went into town right away anyway!" the young man yelled, trying to appease the man.

The masked man stood up, walking in front of the young man, and asked "Oh, why is that?".

The young man felt sweat drip down his neck, the presence in front of him felt heavy, like he was bearing a load he couldn't handle.

"We looked for information in Redaloy after we left… and he had visited the town a day earlier, but then disappeared, it seems he had moved on already".

"So you missed him? You three together, and you still struggle to track a single person?!".

"Sir! Searching for him without a proper direction is nearly impossible! The wilderness between here and Sunnyside is massive, there's no way we can tell where he is!" The older man spoke, his short white hair peeking from under his hood.

"That's right! We've been working our asses off while you've been doing nothing! Maybe if you lifted a finger we could have-!" The girl stood up, filled with indignation as she shouted at the man.

"Lei Ya, no!-" The younger man warned her as the older one watched with shock, not even a second later.

*BANG*

A body went flying, smacking into the brick wall, and causing rubble and dust to fall from the ceiling, shaking the room.

The girl, Lei Ya stood in shock as she saw the young man fall out of the indentation his body had made in the wall and collapse to the floor, heaving blood from his mouth and nose.

"Luo Qi…!" She was shocked as she turned to stare at the masked man who was lowering his leg.

He had pushed her out of the way, protected her from her own foolishness.

The man then clapped slowly.

"What a touching display of companionship, I didn't think such a thing bloomed in a group like ours".

His voiced was filled with mockery and sarcasm as he walked to the front of the older man.

"This time, I'll be following you closely" He said, pulling a device out of his robes and handing it to the pale hands of the older man "This here detects spirit items, like the lens".

He then matched eyes with the old man, his own pupils filled with black like a deep abyss.

"Don't fail this time".

And with that, he disappeared into the darkness.

The old man gripped the small device that looked like a compass and slowly stood up, staring at the young man, Luo Qi's bloody state.

He didn't panic, he wasn't dead, just injured.

Rather he was relieved because of that.

"Luo Qi! Are you alive?!" The girl ran over, steadily turning him over with worry plastered all over her face, different from the usual icy stare she gave.

Luo Qi's eyes were lucid, he managed to glance over at her and speak "How… many times… have we told you…"

"I'm sorry! Really! I didn't think this would happen!" She cried.

"Feed him a Bone Fixing Pill and a Fleshy Restoration Pill, he'll be fine".

"Right!" She dug in to her pouch and pulled out two pills, one of them was porcelain white and the other a crimson red, she went to place them in his mouth but he coughed up blood and spoke in pain.

"I… can't swallow them normally… I need… mouth.. to mouth…" He put on a pitiful expression like a child needing care.

"…I see you're fine then" Lei Ya's crying broke as she shoved them deep in his mouth without a moment's hesitation.

No remorse for playboys.

As the old man watched on, he couldn't help but let out a sigh filled with pain.

'These two… they aren't cut out for this'.

They had been under his care for 3 years and 1 year respectively, normally groups don't form like this under the black sects lead, but they were an exception.

For better or for worse… they could work together well.

But no matter how much time passed he couldn't help but lament these two's decision to enter this world, they just didn't fit.

He sighed again.

"Once you're done, we need to get going, we should be fine with this thing in our hands".