Without Wen Shiyin's help, the intricacy of tracking soon manifested itself. The signs we picked up from demons and artifacts alike were weak and unstable, and they ended up leading us in circles a few times. When we followed Xie Lun's talisman readings to a shack on the edge of the village, we held so little faith in our tracking accuracy that we didn't even expect to find anything useful.
"They must've changed where to hide the prizes after seeing our strategy in the last round," Xie Lun mumbled as we stepped over the threshold. "I don't remember it being this difficult last year."
"Or decreased the number of good prizes," I chuckled. "We took enough of those in the last round anyway."
Xie Lun laughed. "That's true. I wonder how well Wen Shiyin must be doing right now with that new tracker—"
Our conversation stopped abruptly at a rustling sound from the corner of the room. Did our luck finally come? Xie Lun and I exchanged a look. The sound was coming from a stack of hay near the entrance, and we slowly inched towards it, swords in hand. Something large was hiding under it, moving as if trying to break free. We raised our blades, and as the motion grew larger—
"W-Wait!" A voice came out of the stack. Xie Lun and I stilled. Still clutching onto our swords, we watched as a disciple in Jade Temple's robe climbed out of the hay, shaking the straw off of himself. "I fell asleep there," he said. "Don't just raise your swords at any moving thing! You might hurt people!"
I gaped at him. It was still the first day of this round, and the sun hadn't set yet. He fell asleep during the day? Under a stack of hay? That wasn't a very brilliant lie.
I glanced at Xie Lun. He frowned, obviously thinking the same. "Why here?" he asked. "What were you doing here that made you fall asleep?"
The disciple studied us as if trying to decide something. "Do you want to team up with me?" he said after some consideration. "I hid in there to wait for someone to come help me with a prize. I can tell you all the details, but the information is worth a lot. If you end up with the prize I'm about to show you, you'll have to pay me half of its worth in spiritual stones."
Well, that was unexpected. Xie Lun and I looked at each other. Neither of us knew this disciple, and teaming up with someone we couldn't trust was dangerous. But there were two of us. If we stayed cautious enough and kept a close watch on this person …
"I have enough spiritual stones to spare," Xie Lun said to me. "What do you think?"
He was willing to risk it then. I nodded, deciding as well that it was worth a try. "We'll work with you just for this artifact," I said to the Jade Temple disciple. "What is it?"
The disciple grinned. "There's something under this." He flipped a rug on the floor, revealing a trapdoor underneath. "It's an artifact guarded by some type of demon that I haven't seen before, and I didn't want to risk fighting it alone. But now that there's three of us, we should have a sure chance."
"A trapdoor in the village?" Xie Lun said. "But this whole place is only an illusion …"
"The ground is still real," the disciple said. "This door is just covering the entrance to an underground lair. You don't expect the sole purpose of this village to be for us to sleep in, right? There were prizes found here in the first round, so it's only natural that there are hidden lairs where those prizes are kept." When he saw our hesitant look, the disciple added, "If you don't trust me, I can go down first."
Xie Lun and I exchanged another look, then nodded. With a sly smile, the Jade Temple disciple opened the trapdoor. "Enjoy—" he said, and suddenly with a white flash of light, he disappeared right in front of us.
"An instant travel spell!" Xie Lun cursed. "It's a trap. Watch out—"
A loud roar swallowed the rest of his words. Something leaped out of the trapdoor, charging straight at us. At such a close distance, all I could see was a blurry shadow three times the size of a lion, covered in glinting scales. What kind of demon was this?
I didn't have time to think more. Both of us slashed out our swords immediately, but the creature moved fast, easily steering away. With another roar, a strong wind swirled in front of us. Whatever this thing was seemed to have wings, and its flap created so much gust that it swept us off balance. Xie Lun fell to his knees, though he kept his purchase on the ground, whereas I was lifted by the swirling air and slammed backward, hitting the back wall hard. Twin Stars fell from my grip and clattered to the ground.
From the corner of my eye, I saw the creature leaping at me, all giant fangs in its gaping mouth. "Yun Qing-er!" Xie Lun shouted, but he was too far away to be able to help. I watched the demon draw closer in front of my eyes, ten paces, five paces—
The walls around me suddenly started to change, warping into strange shapes, and I felt a force pulling me backward. Was I so terrified that I started hallucinating? Before I could blink and take another look at what was going on, I saw a crimson light glow on Twin Stars, and a surge of power stronger than anything I had ever felt before gushed in front of me. Twin Stars flew into the air on its own. With a dazzling arc of light, it cut a clean slice through the devouring mouth in front of me. The demon shrieked.. With a loud rumble, its body fell to the ground.
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