Into the Depths

Yuchi Meizhen was moving at full speed with her flying sword. Huan Wei held on to her tightly to keep his balance. Still, moving so fast in the sky scared him. How could people get used to this? Everything was so much better with his feet on the ground. If he fell from this height now, they would have to shovel what was left of him off the ground.

Soon they were flying over the ocean. Although they were only a few meters above the water, this made Huan Wei even more nervous. He couldn't swim. He had never been in the water. He had never had time to learn how to swim.

Involuntarily, he held Yuchi Meizhen tighter. She laughed. "Don't tell me you can't swim. You live in a town by the ocean, but you haven't learned to swim?"

Huan Wei did not answer. Because he knew very well that his answer would be ignored. The girl had only said it to mock him.

Soon they left the deep waters of the choppy ocean behind and came ashore. There was a small dock and an old pier, not very long. Fishing boats were docked there. The fishermen seemed to be taking a break. They were all gathered in one place. They were eating what they put on the table in front of them.

When they saw the flying sword, they all stopped eating and stood up. They had been here all day, so they had no idea what was happening up there. It was the first time they had seen such a thing. They were all speechless when two people flew up to them on the sword.

Yuchi Meizhen disappeared the sword after she landed. Huan Wei fell to the ground. As the fishermen looked at them, the girl spoke.

"Who is in authority here?"

One of them stepped forward. He wiped the food from the corner of his mouth with his sleeve and bowed his head. "My name is Huan Fai, honorable lady."

Huan Fai was a middle-aged man. His hair was cut short. He did not have a beard, but he had a long mustache. He was wearing the yellow clothes fishermen wear.

As Huan Wei stood up, Yuchi Meizhen continued talking to Huan Fai. "Have there been any dead bodies caught in your nets in the last two weeks?"

The fishermen looked at each other. Then all eyes fell on a fisherman at the other side of the table. The girl started looking at him too. "Tell me. I want to know."

The fisherman took timid steps towards her and spoke with his head bowed. "It wasn't a whole body. We only found one arm and the head. He must have fallen off the cliff. His body was blown to pieces on impact."

"Describe the face you saw."

Huan Wei was standing at the back, watching. He looked around. He was looking for something that might help him escape, but again he couldn't find it. The docks were at the bottom of a long slope near Bitter Sea Town. Even if he started to run towards it, Yuchi Meizhen would catch him anyway.

"So... He had brown hair, but I can't say anything else. Most of the head was missing. It took us a long time to even realize it was a head." The fisherman spoke.

The girl took a step towards him. All the fishermen stepped back. "You don't need to be afraid," she said. "Where did you find the pieces?"

"He was caught in our nets on the south side of the cliff."

"Thank you." Yuchi Meizhen took out another pouch from her storage ring and threw it at them. So far she seemed to be rewarding everyone except Huan Wei. As the fishermen divided the money, the flying sword reappeared. The girl got on the sword. She forced Huan Wei onto it too. Then they took off and started to fly away.

As they ascended, the fishermen scrambled to divide the money. They flew a few meters above the water. "Huan Wei," she said. "Now I'm going to ask you a very important question. If you answer as I ask and save me the extra work, I will forgive your lies. I will even reward you. You will go home a rich man."

The young man could hardly hear her over the sound of the wind. "I've already told you what I know."

"That's another thing. Did Gongsun Xiasheng have papers in his hand? Or a book or something?"

Huan Wei thought back to the moment he looted the man. Only the necklace had turned out to be anything useful. There was no book or storage ring. "No."

The girl said no more and they continued to fly along the shoreline. Rough waves pounded the rocks. The bottom of the cliff was littered with huge chunks of stone. Crabs could be seen among some of the stones. Birds occasionally entered the water and caught fish.

A few minutes later they came to a place covered in blood. The tracks at the top of the cliff matched what the fishermen had said. Yuchi Meizhen rode her mount there and examined the bloody patches as she flew over the rocks.

The waves seemed to have washed most of it away. Only one leg remained where the water could not reach it. And almost all of the blood on the rock had washed away in the current.

The girl looked for a while but couldn't find what she wanted. "Stupid... He was not able to take it..." she said to herself.

At that moment, Huan Wei was sure of her intentions. She hadn't come here after her friend. She was after what Gongsun Xiasheng was supposed to take from the forest. The young man thought back to the time he killed that man. Gongsun Xiasheng was seriously injured then. Even if Huan Wei didn't come, he was sure to die in a few hours. All his clothes were covered in blood. The tree he was leaning against was covered in blood. What had done this to him? Huan Wei thought about it for the first time. Where had that man gone and come back with such severe wounds?

Of course he couldn't ask her that. For now, he had to do as she said. If he had the chance, he could turn the situation around, but until then he was like a slave.

Yuchi Meizhen rose again and started moving up. She was rising towards the top of the cliff. The higher he rose above the ocean, the more Huan Wei could see. When he was high up, he could see everything so small. Even another bloody rock caught his eye. Looking at the carrion crows flocking there, it was the rock where Huan Liwei lay.

"You seem to have a lot of cliff falls around here." The girl had noticed too. Huan Wei did not answer again. As they wandered through the forest, the young man's deeds would be revealed. He hadn't planned or scenario for a view from the sky. He didn't even know people could fly. Gongsun Xiasheng had been dropped nearby, but Huan Liwei was never supposed to be found.

When they finally rose back into the forest, Yuchi Meizhen did not stop. She kept flying deeper and deeper.

"Hey, where are we going?" said Huan Wei nervously. "It's dangerous from here."

"So what? You'll come with me for giving me extra trouble." Yuchi Meizhen's voice was angry. "Don't worry. If you manage to survive, I'll drop you off in your miserable town on the way back."

"That was not part of our deal."

"We never had a deal." The certainty in her voice silenced Huan Wei. Now she was taking him into the depths by force. He would be among the natural monsters. What else did he have but a kitchen knife? Kill a natural beast with a kitchen knife? With a single claw strike, he was sure he would re-enter the cycle. Had his previous life ended in such an absurd way?

"You know I can't survive in there."

"Fortunately, it's not my problem. It's just a few natural monsters. Not a difficult challenge for my sword. You should have thought before lying to me."

Huan Wei was silent for a while. Then he said, "Is everyone in the sect who follows the Path of the Blood like you?"

"The Path of the Blood?" Yuchi Meizhen began to laugh elegantly. "Poor Huan Wei... Do you divide the world into good and evil? Those who follow the Path of the Blood are evil and those who follow the Path of the Divines are good?"

She turned her head and looked at the young man. "I have chosen Path of the Divines."

"How? You don't follow that path at all?"

"Who cares? I like what this path brings me. Only a fool chooses her path according to the world. I chose the path that would benefit me the most."

The flying sword accelerated a little more. Huan Wei could no longer see the town when he looked back. The trees had grown dense. Frightening roars came from many different places. Natural monsters were everywhere. He could feel dozens of energy fields around them. Since no one from Bitter Sea Town had ever entered this forest, they remained untouched.

"Let's see if you are as eager to hold on to life as you are to lie."

Yuchi Meizhen drew her sword. When she moved the fingers of her free hand in a way that Huan Wei couldn't see, the energy in her body began to flow. Lightning gathered at her fingertips and formed a small ball in the palm of her hand. She plunged her sword into this ball up to the hilt. Now the Lightning Qi was on the sword and integrated with the metal part. Just by looking at the sword, Huan Wei could feel the power surpassing the entire town. If one of the tiny bolts of lightning he had thrown had touched him, it would not only have hurt him.

Yuchi Meizhen suddenly dived and reached the ground, enveloping the flying sword in energy and made it disappear. Huan Wei could not have imagined that his feet would be so uncomfortable on the ground.

He saw something emerging from the trees with heavy steps. Its gray hide was dazzling in color. It was as tall as Huan Wei. Its teeth were longer than the kitchen knife the young man was carrying. Its body looked very built. Its bright eyes brought a smile to her face. "The gray wolf with golden eyes. I will take your pelt and eyes with me when I leave."

Huan Wei tried not to get too far away from her, but Yuchi Meizhen rushed forward. Before the young man realized what had happened, he was alone.

The wolf rushed at her at the same time. Its attempt to bite her head was thwarted by her graceful duck and parry. She stabbed her lightning sword into one of the wolf's legs. The electric shock that ran through its entire body caused the natural monster to groan in pain, but it drew back, shook it off and attacked again. This time using its sword-sharp claws.

Yuchi Meizhen once again raised her sword and defended herself. The flow on the metal caused the wolf to be struck again when it came into contact with the claw. The natural monster staggered back a few steps. Being hit twice had numbed its body.

Seeing it in this state, the girl put one leg back. Huan Wei was hiding behind a tree. He was praying that another natural monster would not come there. Because it probably wouldn't attack Yuchi Meizhen.

"Death Voltage!" When Yuchi Meizhen extended two fingers of her free hand towards the wolf, a bolt of lightning started at her feet and traveled through her entire body to her fingers. From there, it shot violently towards the wolf. The numb wolf could not react in time and fell over, groaning in pain from the impact of the lightning. She hadn't killed it on purpose.

She rushed to its side and swept her sword clean of lightning bolts, stabbed it in the head. She didn't want to damage its pelt. Huan Wei watched everything with his mouth open. Coating a weapon with the element, using your element with your bare hands... The young man realized that he had underestimated the size of the world. He had underestimated the powers that humans could achieve. He had forgotten what Qi could do, because he had never seen anything like it from anyone in town. Energy was something of immense power.

The girl made neat cuts with her sword into the monster's pelt. She had already taken the pelt and the eyes and put them in her ring while Huan Wei watched in amazement. Then she started to walk deeper and deeper, and Huan Wei picked himself up and followed her. To be alone in this place was suicide, and he had no intention of dying yet.