Zhang Cai laid on stones facing the northern beach, with his back to the frozen sea and his face to the cloaked fellows welcoming him safe. He watched their moves and listened to their speech, but he made no moves to return the gesture. His stare revealed nothing but a blank, empty pair of pupils that shook and shrank. How else was he to react?

This single instant was one that tried to define his entire journey...once more.

‘‘Demonics aren‘t supposed to act like this.‘‘ he thought. ‘‘They shouldn‘t be like this.‘‘

These thoughts borne in his chest a stiff bump, near the heart and inside the lungs. This terrible weight flashed memories of Il-Ich, and of Li Bo‘s own words. He raised one hand and put it on where his heart was, feeling its comfortable thump, and lowered his other hand to his left foot where the dark blade laid.

‘‘Senior.‘‘ they all spoke as one. ‘‘We wish you no harm.‘‘

But his hand did grasp that worn-out handle. A single leash of its emerald colored wrapping was undone, dangling behind his scratched index-finger. A drop of blood fell on the exposed steel inside.

Zhang Cai rose up to his feet and turned to truly face them. His grasp on the blade remained tight.

Seconds went by between the two, one a traveler and the other a being of queer aspect, and as they kept searching each other for things the other had no idea a large crack sounded across the beach. The force of the sea at last triumphed over the Qi of the Xian. Cracks spread through the hills and almost-mountains of ice, weaving web-like patterns over their foundations, where one piece of them among thousands shattered and a shower of hail exploded across the horizon.

Both the lapis and the aquamarine swelled up and down, rocking and brushing against each other, where great roars of the xian could not suppress their cry of freedom. Then it all came to an end, the waves soothed and the ice sank beneath the sea. A gale swept over the white foams, floated through the clifftop, rounded the wide-leaved lemon-like trees of the island and hit Zhang Cai‘s straightened back.

He let out a sigh and held his blade so that the pommel would face them and the tip would point at him. Then he scratched his head, feeling the dis-proportionate length of his curly hair cut by many claws and broken by ice.

‘‘Do you know where my sheath went?‘‘

He did not find it on himself. A tear stretched from the left side of his belt up to his belly button, revealing bandages of his old wounds. Anything on there, as the sheath was, was no longer in sight. To his fortune, the spatial pouch and the spare flask of endless water was safe.

They all looked amongst each other, one of them held the hand of the other, and Zhang Cai noticed one too feminine to be a man, then answered him.

‘‘It is down in the sea. A hammer shark watching your fight has it swallowed inside its stomach. How do you fare, senior?‘‘

He felt a faint distaste from the abrupt tone of them but Zhang Cai answered the same.

‘‘As well as you can see.‘‘

He had at most fifty pulls of Qi left to him, for imitating Li Bo‘s Qi Veil was no easy task. He had been too inefficient with it. Other than that, though he felt sore all around, with his forearm bones tingling and purple, he felt great. This had been one of the rare encounters that he returned unharmed for the most part.

Of course, the biggest contributor to this result was the five.

‘‘...thank you for your help. I am indebted to you.‘‘

‘‘Then do help us, senior, we beseech you.‘‘

‘‘Isn‘t that a little too shameless, taking it up so soon?‘‘

‘‘Our request is your own wish as well, senior.‘‘

‘‘My wish?‘‘ Zhang Cai frowned at their response. ‘‘What is my wish?‘‘

He heard the Xian roar behind him, but he ignored it. The five of them watched it, however, and so he turned around and saw it breathing ice over the barrier and blotting out the sky. The round silver sheen transformed into a pseudo-shell made of icicles lapis in color, so cold that the stones beneath their feet turned misty.

’’How...?’’ The amount of Qi needed for such action was at least a few dozen times above Zhang Cai’s capacity. Even if he was a Threshold Wayfarer, he could not match such large amounts.

That was another fearsome aspect of Xian, who had Qi as their breath and food, full of them both in belly and meridians. Unless there was no Qi to be found around, a Xian could always replace their lost Qi with but a single inhale.

This sight did remind Zhang Cai of the seriousness of his circumstance, as well as the danger. ’’How long can that barrier hold out?’’

’’Long enough if you assist us, senior.’’

He thought of one thing he remembered about them most.

’’You want a droplet.’’

They all bubbled at the same time, where he saw visible excitement from them.

The one at the forefront took a single step forward and spoke, for the first time, by herself.

‘‘That is the given, but your wish is the ultimate one. We, as you do, wish the death of Long Kongzi, disciple of Ice.’’

’’Long...’’

Shuan, Long, Sheng. It was not just mankind who had surnames.

He cast a look above, to the darkened skies of the island and the dome of ice half-way across the island.

’’Would you listen to us, in a much proper place?’’

Zhang Cai glanced at them, then back at the dome.

’’Okay.’’

*********

They led him under the cool shades of the cedar leaves and over a small meadow full of crimson lilies. There was no river running around it or inside it, and he was more than sure that it was a man-made one. Across the meadow, with the trickling Sunlight fainting with each second, he followed them to a mouth leading down a cave dwelling.

He was not trustful of them even at this point. Zhang Cai knew, or learned enough after a while, that trust was one thing he could not afford to give much. True value of that lesson came in Il-Ich with this sort. So his Qi, as far as he could to hide it from them, spread throughout the terrain to see what it was about.

He sensed quite a rich Qi from the cedars and the crimson lilies, and also a few lone nine-petal lotuses in a pond deep inside the cave. Else, there was one more person in the cave with Fourth-step Glassmade cultivation. They were nowhere near the Rocksmote.

They climbed down a flight of carved brown stairs and landed inside a clearing with a three-meter high ceiling. Rusty steel placeholders for blazing torches went winding throughout the single hall, with a dozen doors in it leading to smaller rooms. At the end of the hallway stood a gateless room lit by a scarlet glow, though nothing else he could see with his senses. A strange force kept him from learning what it was, though the uncloaked man he could see very well.

The group of them halted and went back to speaking as a group. ‘’He is the Spiritual Link of our holding. He is the one who holds reason and gives us instructions from the lord.’’

The one who holds reason?

Were they not capable of speaking and fighting, and convincing him to some extent? The implication that they did not hold intellect was something Zhang Cai found creepy.

They said nothing else and gave a short bow, standing at either side of him. He kept an eye on them nevertheless and walked into the glowing room and inspected the Spiritual Link.

He had no hair, neither on his face or head or arms and legs. He wore but a scarlet girdle hiding his private parts, a few bracelets of silver and shark-tooth, and sandals made of cedar wood.

When he spoke, the grim scar running down his glabella squeezed the reddened flesh. ’’I am the Spiritual Link of this holding, one who holds reason and delivers instructions from the lord Shey-Amo.’’

Then he went silent and stared into Zhang Cai’s eyes.

He waited a little more and cast a glance back at the group. None of them moved, nor gestured, and he gazed back at the Spiritual Link to understand what he wanted.

’’...who are you?’’

So he wanted an introduction.

’’I am Zhang Cai, a wandering disciple-to-be.’’

He had no reason or need to tell them his master’s name. Not even Li Bo and Li Huan he told it. There was something strange in his master’s name. He knew it, and he was aware he knew it, but even if he opted to tell or think of it the name would not come to being. As he progressed further in the road of Cultivation, Zhang Cai came to understand that it was a similar trick the mind-wreckers had used on the madman.

Not that he thought his master would hurt him. Someone of the Spirit realm, it seemed, held their name far more valuable than most things. A matter of identity, he thought, and he understood it a little. No man or woman could go without a name in this world and be a man and a woman—even if it was a Zhang or a Liu.

’’There is but a single matter worthy to discuss,’’ the spiritual link spoke. ’’And that is the survival of us both.’’

There was one matter bugging Zhang Cai, and he was not sure if it was the time to ask. He thought for a moment, and he decided to ask after all.

’’Would it not solve your problems if you threw me out the island. You were aware Long...long kongzu-’’

’’Long Kongzi.’’

’’Long Kongzi went after me. Why bother killing him, when the chances are we all will die without achieving it?’’

’’We cannot, even if we do want it.’’

That was clear as day. They could not match him even if he had three or four pulls left. The differences between stages were too far apart to make such a miracle occur; there was no precedent to the matter of winning against a higher realm, and there would not be ever after. Even in numbers, it would be difficult.

’’I got it.’’

’’Wanderer Zhang needs to be aware of this, however. Even if we could, we would not.’’

He found that reasonable as well. A xian’s grudge was not so easy to escape from. He did suffer from it, after all. No matter how duty-bound Long Kongzi seemed, Zhang Cai knew the pussy of a snake would come after him if allowed by its guardians.

’’I understand.’’ He took a glance back to the dimming entrance and put his back to the cool wall. ’’What is your idea? How will we be able to cooperate, if we even can?’’

Li Huan and Li Bo were people he trained and journeyed with. These people were not.

’’The droplet our lord will bestow unto you will allow everyone to reach Fourth-step Glassmade. It is not enough to push the Head-Hound to the Rocksmote, and I cannot fight even if I were to be a Rocksmote.’’

’’That little won’t be much except distraction.’’

’’Distraction is the best they can do in any case.’’

’’Is that it?’’

Spiritual Link closed his eyes. Zhang Cai saw two red lotuses with four-petals tattoed on his eyelids.

A moment after he opened it and pointed his index-finger down to the earth.

’’We have the terrain advantage, you have the domain advantage. Long Kongzi has increased pain immunity from his scars. If we can allow a scenario where he lands on the island, it will be possible to drown him.’’

Zhang Cai thought over it, then he did some more. No proper answer came to him.

’’How will we drown him?’’

’’I will show you, once we beseech our lord for their blood.’’