The Chance for Escape

Although the woman in the painting wasn't willing to elaborate on her association with Gu Qingcheng, Han Sen thought it might have been for the best. Gu Qingcheng was most likely watching his every move, anyway.

But Han Sen got ahead of himself, and it turned out she hadn't actually seen him enter the painting. She watched him intently, but she had only seen Han Sen standing in front of the stone doing absolutely nothing. She hadn't seen him enter the image on the rock, at all.

Han Sen spent much time mulling over the relationship between the green-clothed woman and Gu Qingcheng, but he couldn't come up with any plausible theories.

The next morning, Gu Qingcheng came looking for Han Sen in the garden. His heart leaped when he saw her, fearing she might have known about his brief stint inside the painting.

"I'm leaving the shelter for a while. For the duration I am gone, you'd best stay put in the garden," Gu Qingcheng said, surprising Han Sen.

"I'm stuck here. I don't know where I'd go even if I did leave." Han Sen exaggerated a shrug.

"You know what I mean." Gu Qingcheng turned to leave, not willing to spare time explaining things any further than that.

"Where are you going?" Han Sen asked.

Gu Qingcheng hesitated and answered, "To get something. If you can make the holy child revive, it'd be good for you and her both. But remember, you'll have to wake her up first."

Before she left completely, she said one more thing: "While I'm gone, don't set one foot outside this garden."

Han Sen knew what she was implying. There was every chance the Elysium might come for him wielding pitchforks in her absence, so it was best for him to stick to the safety of the garden.

Han Sen knew this was her way of being nice to him, but her absence still made for his best chance of escaping.

The next day, Han Sen decided not to follow Gu Qingcheng's commands. Instead, he slipped out of the garden and made his way to the geno core storage.

No one confronted him on his way there, and although the spirits looked at him with extra hostility, they did nothing. As usual, they simply tried to kill him with a nasty stare.

Han Sen went back and forth a few times from there. With no threats and nothing prohibiting his coming and going, he really did think this would make for the perfect chance to escape.

Many spirits and creatures were coming and going on the east side of Elysium Shelter. They did not belong to Elysium Shelter, and it seemed as if some manner of business had brought them hither.

Han Sen watched them for two days, and over the course of that time, he saw many more creatures and spirits than he had expected. There wasn't much in the way of security, either. Han Sen figured he'd be able to hide in the crowds to slip out. All he needed to do was pick the right opportunity for making a move, something he wagered would not be difficult.

"An emperor class shelter has this glaring vulnerability? No way. This has to be some sort of trap. Perhaps this is all a ruse established by the Elysium, setting me up for an easy excuse to take my life. If I stay, they'll have no reason or just cause for killing me. I'll be safe. If I leave, they'll undoubtedly cherish the ability to hunt me down," Han Sen thought with concern.

Han Sen hesitated to depart. It looked like a great opportunity for an escape, but it looked like a trap, too.

"You want to leave?" As Han Sen wondered what he should do, the green-clothed woman spoke to him from the stone.

"Why would I do such a thing?" Han Sen was shocked by the sudden question, and he quickly turned to deny what she had suggested.

"Whatever you're seeing is just a trap," the woman informed him, seeming to disregard what Han Sen had said.

Han Sen's face changed, and he didn't deny his desire to leave again.

She went on to say, "If you think you can trust me, I have a way in which you can escape. Would you like to give it a try?"

"Why would you want to help me?" Han Sen curiously eyed the lady.

The woman coldly answered, "I'm actually helping myself. I want to escape, but I want you to come with me."

"Aren't you the holy child of the Elysium? Why do you want to leave?" Han Sen asked with surprise.

She fell silent for a little while, then said, "I am the holy child of the Elysium, but I don't want that title. I don't want any of this. I just want to be an ordinary, run-of-the-mill spirit."

"Okay, and what does this plan of yours involve?" Han Sen was neither interested nor willing to hear whatever sad life story she seemed about to tell him. He wanted a way out, so he was going to get down to brass tacks.

The lady quietly murmured, "While Gu Qingcheng is gone, I can help you escape. But unless you can get me my spirit stone back, I'm not going anywhere."

"Where is your spirit stone?" Han Sen didn't think she was the sort to lie to him. And if she had a way in which they could escape successfully, he didn't mind helping her out.

The woman in the painting said, "The spirit stone in the spirit statue is mine, believe it or not."

"The spirit stone in the spirit statue is yours?" Han Sen frowned.

If her spirit stone resided inside the spirit statue, the only way she could get it back was if she pledged obedience to someone else.

The spirit hall would have many guards, however. Getting in would not be easy, and going for the stone would be a much harder method of escaping the shelter.

"If it's not my spirit stone, who else would it belong to? Gu Qingcheng is just a human, after all," the woman inside the painting said.

"Gu Qingcheng really is a human?" Han Sen had been wondering if she truly was.

He found it difficult to believe an entire spirit family like Elysium would willingly obey a human. And if Gu Qingcheng was a human, then why was the woman inside the painting a spirit?

The woman did not answer Han Sen directly, and when she spoke next, she actually mocked him. "You humans aren't afraid to die, are you? Even in the midst of all this, you're going to ask questions like that?"

"I was just asking. I want to help you get your stone back, but my powers won't take me any further than the gates." Han Sen shrugged again.

"Who said you have to walk in through the front door?" The green-clothed woman smiled. "I told you the spirit stone in the spirit statue is mine. I can control the shelter, and that means I can send you to the spirit hall with ease. All you have to do is grab the spirit stone."

Han Sen was wary of trusting her. If things were that easy, why couldn't she have gone and taken it herself?

"But there is one minor issue we have to deal with first."

There was a catch, of course.