Chapter 69

  Fragments of Lives Gone (I)

  Light insisted on holding my hand (well, my finger, really) as we descended the mountain, and I obliged.

  There truly was something magical about earning the trust of a child; it's sort of like when you're feeding a stray cat for almost a year and it finally lets you pet it.

  ... did I just compare a kid to a cat?

  Yikes.

  Anyway, the sect was rather... different before the sun emerged on the horizon. There was a serene stillness and quietness to it, dark shadows embossing the slanted frames of the rooftops, the invisible tendrils of nothing holding it all together. The sounds of our footsteps were exceptionally loud, or at least appeared to be so, and I realized I really didn't like being out at night.

  It made sense--this was wilderness, after all. While the mountain path may have been rather bereft of the greenery, it was still a mountain and not an actual road. There were critters hiding in the stray shrubberies, countless tiny lizards crawling between the rocks and hiding in the gaps, and insects galore just waking up.

  I held it together, of course, for her, but... it didn't seem like she needed it. Chances are that she genuinely didn't care, as she hummed an unfamiliar tune with a rather jubilant expression (well, jubilant for her) as we descended.

  The sect got even creepier as we left the mountain and entered the valley; the usually busy hubbub that was the market was nowhere to be found. There were no disciples anywhere, and it legitimately looked like we stumbled into some creepy, abandoned horror show and that we were a few hours away from being devoured by some demon--

  --hey, she's a demon. She's not gonna devour me, though, right?

  Khm.

  Jokes aside, I adhered to Elder Qin's instructions and met him at the bottom of his peak, where he was waiting for us. Rather than taking the same route we did the first time I went to the Antechamber, he led us... elsewhere. Deeper and deeper into the recess of the sect, the small, narrow passages between the mountain slopes, and then into a broad opening in the side of a cliff.

  Great, from one dark thingamabob into an even darker one.

  Luckily, with a flick of a finger, Elder Qin summoned a luminous sphere that stayed floating above our heads, illuminating the surprisingly broad passage.

  "According to the Founding Master's journal," Elder Qin broke the silence. "This passage was already there when he and his disciples chanced upon the mountain."

  "... it's clearly manmade." I said, noting the beams holding it up.

  "He didn't think so," Elder Qin said. "The beams and the poles supporting the passage are new. When he found it, it was being held open by invisible tendrils of strange Qi that he'd never experienced before. Dark and ominous, yet light and forthcoming, as though someone had taken Demonic Qi and Ordinary Qi and married the two."

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Hmm? Wait... isn't that exactly what probably happened? Long Tao did mention that the Antechamber was designed to take Demonic Qi and purify it, so it's entirely possible that his passage was made by one or another creature that went into the Antechamber. Maybe even several times, which was why there was such a paradoxical mix of Qi.

  "He supposed that, a long time before his arrival, there existed a Mythical Beast among these mountains, and that the passage was made by it in its infancy." Well... he's not completely wrong.

  "I didn't know about this place," I said after scouring Lu Qi's memories.

  "Few do, actually," Elder Qin said. "The original entrance is hidden by a rather complex array. Only the most Senior members of the Sect know about it... and now you, I suppose."

  "..." Ignoring the jab, I simply further examined the jutting, sharp rocks from the sides and wondered... how did the passage survive for so many years? As far as Lu Qi's memories went, Spirit Sword Sect was only about eight to nine hundred years old, give or take, and Long Tao disappeared ten thousand years ago. And that was 'disappeared'--who the hell knows how long before that he made this place.

  It was still rather difficult for me to wrap my head around the notion of things like dynasties and sects and things existing in almost uninterrupted states for hundreds of years, yet now the timeline is already being pushed to thousands, if not even more than that.

  To them, though, it probably wouldn't be unusual; it'd be sort of like discovering a city somewhere on Earth in the jungle that was built in 400 BCE. Sure, it'd be an amazing discovery, but not exactly world-shattering. Now, finding evidence of a man-like primate riding a T-Rex into battle? Would have made for a fun children's story.

  The walk lasted about half an hour before we broke into a familiar little scenery--the Antechamber stood as lit up as it did the time before, the winds shaping the maelstrom of Qi at the center into a rather breathtaking vista.

  "We're here," Elder Qin stated the obvious. "I'll ask again: are you absolutely sure about this?"

  Was I?

  Honestly... there were some doubts. While I did trust Long Tao, it was also quite possible that he made up the entire thing because he figured out Light's identity and wanted to kill her before she became a threat.

  Rather, if I were a deeply paranoid and distrustful person hellbent on surviving in this world by any means necessary, I would devoutly believe that version over any other. However, the fact that he came back to inform me of something that yielded him no benefit... it forced me to reexamine the monster I thought I knew, ever so slightly.

  "I am," I replied. "Okay. Light," I crouched down to her eye level. "You'll cross that bridge and go into that big sphere over there. Don't be afraid, okay?"

  "... can you come with me?"

  "Uh, I'm really not--"

  "--I want you to come with me."

  "I'm really not supposed to--"

  "--I won't go if you don't come with me!"

  Huh.

  I am suddenly reminded why I wasn't fond of kids back on Earth. It was precisely this--these occasional bouts of unyielding stubbornness where they throw epic tantrums if they don't get their way. My mom had a rather funny way of solving it, which involved any one random object she could reach and throw at me.

  "You should go," eh? I aggressively spun my head toward Elder Qin to see if he was making some sick joke, but based on his expression... he wasn't. Rather, there was... a strange sense of serenity within his eyes, and it finally hit me.

  "... I should, huh?" I stood up, meeting his gaze squarely.

  This was a test.

  Through and through.

  His way of finalizing whether he could trust me or not.

  "You'd never been before," he said. "And I'll be right here, in case something goes wrong."

  "..." I stayed silent, enduring the eyes that seemed deeply apologetic. He wanted to trust me, but the sin of human nature was the doubt. The enduring trait, ever a worm.

  "So, you'll... come?" Light squeezed my finger tightly and pulled my attention away. Well, now I kind of have to. If I refuse, even if Elder Qin doesn't kill me on the spot, he won't help me ever again.

  "... I'll come," I said, mentally preparing for the onslaught of demons that weren't even my own.