Chapter Ninety-Four: Destination

Lin Jianyan’s words of concern had only just fallen when color rushed into her cheeks. Her voice was as faint as a mosquito’s hum, and her heart was pounding so hard it nearly leapt from her chest.

Shangguan Chuci had seen it all. She had originally meant to step forward herself to greet Lu Chenyuan and ask after his injuries, but the little girl had beaten her to it. Her delicate brows rose slightly, her soft lips pursed in a touch of discontent, and she thought to herself: This timid little thing looked so shy, and yet she is unexpectedly bold now...

Lu Chenyuan only felt the vicious qi within him, which had been raging like a storm-tossed sea, finally settle down. He quietly flexed his knuckles, confirming that the strange anomaly in his palm had completely withdrawn, and only then did he let out a silent breath of relief.

He lifted his head and looked at the young girl before him, still shaken by fright, and said, “I’m fine, so there’s no need for you to worry. I saw you in danger just now and acted rashly. I only hope I did not interfere with your investigation.”

Lu Chenyuan’s question was sincere. Lin Jianyan heard it and only felt warmth spread through her heart, even the chill born of fear fading a little.

She hurriedly waved her hands, her pretty face inexplicably growing even hotter, and stammered, “Not at all! I should be the one thanking Young Master Lu for intervening, otherwise this junior would most likely have met with disaster...”

By the end, her voice had become almost inaudible. The glazed palace lantern in her arms seemed to sense its owner’s feelings as well; as its light flowed and shimmered, a circle of shy pink even rippled across its surface.

She had originally intended to hide the other’s identity by calling him “Young Master Lu,” yet in her confusion she had unconsciously referred to herself as “this junior.”

Had such words been spoken before the investigation began, the people of the Demon Suppression Bureau would surely have found them strange.

But at this moment, they all tacitly looked at their noses and their noses at their hearts, as if they had heard nothing at all, silently hiding the girl’s inadvertent reverence away in their own minds.

Shangguan Chuci took it all in, lightly tapping the fan bone of the white jade folding fan against her palm. She could not help but give a soft snort through her nose and grumbled inwardly: This blockhead. We have not seen each other for only a few days, and somehow he has become so eloquent?

The senior disciple of the Hundred Refinements Sect had also clearly seen the whole scene, yet he felt an entirely different sort of bitterness in his heart.

He had originally thought that since this youth had already displayed such unfathomable means, he must be a capricious and ruthless fiend. Who would have imagined that he would now reveal the bearing of a proper gentleman instead, speaking and behaving with such refinement and courtesy? Where was there any trace of the dark and sinister aura of a Lamp-Bearer from an evil cult?

“Whoever can become a Lamp-Bearer is no easy thing,” he thought to himself. “This man’s depth of mind is truly rare in all my life. His manner is plainly that of a consummate master at playing the harmless fool while hiding lethal intent. To think I had taken him for nothing more than an ordinary innkeeper of a shady tavern before. I was truly blind!”

The more he thought, the more alarmed he became. He almost unconsciously turned to say a few words to his junior sister, but when his gaze fell there, he saw that his own junior sister was staring at the young man without blinking, and in her eyes there seemed to be a strange light he could not quite read.

His heart stirred, and he lowered his voice to ask, “Junior sister, can you tell what level his cultivation is?”

The woman slowly shook her head and said in a low voice, “I cannot. Even when he made his move just now, I still did not sense the slightest trace of true essence flowing from him.”

“Then it seems I alone was not mistaken...” The senior disciple felt a chill run down his back. Secretly thankful, he thought, That was close. That was too close. If we had really barged in this afternoon and disturbed his peace, I fear the heads of the two of us would now be hanging from the inn’s signboard.

Lu Chenyuan’s hearing was exceptionally sharp. Every word of their whispered conversation reached him without omission, and he could only laugh and cry inwardly at the same time.

He had no time to pay them any mind, however, and instead turned his gaze back to Lin Jianyan. “Good that there was nothing. But I wonder, what exactly did you see just now?”

Seeing him ask about serious matters, Lin Jianyan dared not delay. She quickly gathered her thoughts and briefly recounted what she had seen in that bizarre, hallucinatory inner world, selecting the important parts. Only then did she conclude, “So it seems those two were telling the truth. There really was a demon fish stranded here, and it swallowed quite a few villagers.”

Hearing this, the senior disciple felt the frustration he had suffered earlier disperse at once, and he could not help feeling rather vindicated. With a snort, he said, “Now you should believe my junior sister and me, should you not?”

The armored agents of the Demon Suppression Bureau only gave him a cold glance and said nothing.

After hearing Lin Jianyan’s account, Shangguan Chuci could not help but show a look of surprise and sincerely praised, “Earlier, when I heard what Mistress Lin said, it seemed nothing more than a few fragmented and uncanny images. I never expected that you would be able to tease so many clues out of them.”

Lu Chenyuan felt the same and nodded. “Indeed. Admirable.”

Being praised in this way by the two of them, Lin Jianyan’s pretty face reddened again at once. She stammered, “N-not really... I’ve just been dealing with these things since I was young. After a long time, you learn how to distinguish and interpret them.”

Shangguan Chuci’s heart moved. “Could it be that Mistress Lin possesses such a gift from birth?”

Lin Jianyan hesitated briefly before correcting herself. “You could say that. I’m not sure whether this should be called a gift or an illness...”

As if remembering the past, a trace of sorrow flashed through her eyes. “I thought that once I entered the path of cultivation and kindled my heart-fire, things would improve. I never expected that I would see even more than before, and what I saw would be even stranger.”

“My father had no choice, so he sought out a master to forge this glazed lamp for me, to help suppress this strange ability.”

Lu Chenyuan heard her speak so lightly, but in his mind a figure had already taken shape: a timid young girl who had, since childhood, been able to glimpse ghosts and phantoms invisible to others, and who had gritted her teeth through endless fear and loneliness to walk, step by step, to where she stood today.

Thinking of this, he could not help but feel a little more pity for her. Looking again at that glazed palace lantern, he understood that it was not merely an interesting magical artifact, but the girl’s final line of defense against madness, the last thing preserving her humanity.

Shangguan Chuci also let out a quiet sigh and asked, “But if all we have are these clues, then wouldn’t the trail of the demon fish end here?”

As soon as she finished speaking, Lin Jianyan, still clutching the palace lantern, slowly shook her head and said softly, “It has not ended.”

At this, everyone looked at her in surprise.

Meeting everyone’s gaze, Lin Jianyan slowly raised a jade-white finger like a tender green sprout and pointed toward the outline of the eastern sea cliff.

Though that place, too, was shrouded in the night, it was not utterly dark. One could faintly make out a continuous stretch of flying eaves and bracketed beams, and several pinpoints of light hung in the air like will-o’-the-wisps, high and low, burning in stillness.

Those lights cast the area in a wavering glow, neither fully clear nor fully dim, yet imbued with an indescribable air of solemn authority.

She said softly, “It went in that direction.”

Lu Chenyuan only felt that direction was strangely familiar. Almost reflexively, he asked, “That direction could it be...”

“Listening-Tide Pavilion.”

Shangguan Chuci snapped her white jade folding fan shut with a click and slowly uttered those three words.

At the words Listening-Tide Pavilion, Lu Chenyuan’s brows tightened at once.

For some reason, an uneasy feeling rose in his heart. He said in a low voice, “Around Listening-Tide Pavilion, experts are gathered in great numbers. The finest talents of the Nine Provinces’ immortal sects and the officials of the Imperial Astronomical Bureau are all assembled there. Since that demon fish is a malignant creature, why would it not seek some secluded place to hide, and instead rush straight into such a dragon’s den and tiger’s lair? Would that not be walking into a trap of its own accord?”

His question was perfectly reasonable, and after hearing it, everyone else showed a thoughtful expression as well.

After a moment of reflection, Shangguan Chuci said, “Brother Lu’s concern is entirely justified. This matter is indeed full of uncanny strangeness and runs counter to common sense at every turn. The demon fish’s actions appear reckless, but there may well be deeper meaning in them. It is only that, with the information we have in hand still incomplete, we cannot readily infer the key to it.”

Changing the subject, she slowly swept her gaze across everyone’s faces and saw fatigue written on each of them.

Shangguan Chuci already had a plan in mind and suggested, “It’s late now. The moon is hidden, the stars are sinking, and this is precisely the hour when yin energy is at its peak. We are all weary and depleted of true essence at the moment. If we rush after it without any preparation, we may well be walking straight into that evil creature’s hands.”

“Best-case, we would accomplish nothing and waste our strength for nothing. Worst-case, it would seize the opportunity and drag the lives of everyone here into the bargain.”

“In my opinion, this matter requires further thought. We should first find somewhere safe to recover our strength, make proper arrangements, and only then proceed. There is no need to hurry.”