Lily glared at the hunter as he and Avyr alighted with perfect, almost unfair grace on the blank stone around the wreckage of the hot springs. “What were you thinking? Do you just shoot everyone that you see, or just the people who you give advice to?” The hunter winced, but she was far too upset to even so much as take a pause to breathe— “here we are, minding our own business, cultivating peacefully— not even looking for natural treasures or hunting beasts and then— bam! Bullet from heaven! Do you have any idea how annoying that is? I spent weeks on these formations! You’re lucky your bullets couldn’t break the qi gathering formation, or else I’d be mad.” All her stuff, gone. At least the cases Mingtian had given her had survived…

“Like you weren’t already…” Avyr muttered beneath his breath, before giving her a rather… dim look. “Circumstances make understanding your ire rather easy, Lily, but… please. I don’t want to get into another fight with a Foundation Establishment cultivator. Show some respect.” Right, he was in Foundation Establishment. She’d kind of forgotten about that…

Almost sheepishly, she glanced away from the two of them. “Sorry… not about what I said, though! Just about the provocations.”

“It’s fine. I’m the one that owes you an apology. I put you in a situation that by all rights you should never have been placed in, here in Ca Cao. These mountains of ours are unkind enough without grudges and feuds too.” He glanced around the shattered wreckage of their campsite, a faint echo of interest sparking in his gaze as it flicked across the shattered and broken pillars of stone that had once made up the defensive formation— she scowled at the reminder of how much work she’d lost to that— before settling at last on the qi gathering formation.

That at least, had survived. Damaged in parts, long scratches run through the stone where shrapnel had scoured across it and cracks running through in the echo of the blasts, the tops of the cong scorched from her big fire spell… but, it’d survived. The pool… not so much. One of the craters had blown a hole in the side of the pool, and most of the water had splashed out and run down the side of the mountain. The water wasn’t necessary for the qi formation to work, but… c’mon, it didn’t look at all as cool without it.

The hunter knelt down beside the formation, running a finger over the side of the stone, tracing a line through the ash as he felt the grain of smooth stone. “Did you make this?”

“Yep.”

He was silent for a long moment. “I don’t know what I could offer you, in all honesty. I have a handful of spirit stones on my person, but that must be pocket change to a mortal with the skill to make such refined formations. I could give you some cultivation treasures, but none of them are even fitting for a Shedding cultivator, much less a formations master of your caliber. Maybe you could make use of them, but…”

Lily glanced over at her friend inquisitively. “Avyr? You’re the one who was attacked, so you can choose if you want.”

He tilted his head, then shuffled in disregard. “I don’t particularly care. Though, I think I might have made a breakthrough of sorts in my cultivation during the fight— if you’d excuse me, I’d like to make the most of this opportunity.” She could really deny him that, even if she did secretly suspect it was just to escape having to deal with the hunter in their midst.

“C’mon, let’s give him some space.” She waved, only half expecting the hunter to follow her away from the qi gathering formation, but finding herself pleasantly surprised when he did without a fuss. “I never got your name, you know? Funny, kinda, given how much I’ve been thinking of you these past few weeks…”

“Of me?”

“Of the question you asked me, at least.”

“Ah.” He nodded, understanding. “You may call me Ruqian, of the family of Lu, not that I have any great affiliation with them anymore. Perhaps one day, when I’m finished protecting the mountains, I’ll retire with my relatives, but…” he shrugged. “I doubt I’ll survive that long.”

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on NovelBin. Report any occurrences.

“Aren’t you a Foundation Establishment cultivator, though?” And left unsaid, with a big gun.

Ruqian snorted, and nodded, leaning against the rough bark of a broad pine. “Foundation Establishment is not the peak of power, by any means— it’s in the name.” Before Lily could respond, he continued— “and nor is it the peak of power amongst these Dragonspine mountains. I’ve heard of Core Formation beasts in the deep wilds, where they prowl ever threatening to crash down on a town and erase them entirely. There’s even legends of a dragon who lives in these parts, did you know? They say her power is enough to match the sect master of Bloody Saffron Sect.”

“I sincerely doubt that.”

Ruqian laughed. “I also sincerely doubt that, but who knows? Dragons live long lives, and they rightfully hide themselves from cultivators. Either way, Core Formation or Late Sundering— what’s the difference to me? Dead is dead.” Lily couldn’t really argue with that. She guessed that was fair… “but, regardless. Did you find an answer?”

“No.”

He paused for a moment, not quite looking her way, between heaven and earth so… stoically, stupidly silent. All serene master cultivator like, just lacking the cool robes and the… sword or something. “That’s fine. It took me a long time to figure out what I was fighting for… and perhaps, I never really figured it out in the end. The world is always changing. Faster now than it ever has before, and… how can I, a mere Foundation Establishment cultivator understand the will of the heavens? Who can?”

“A god.”

“I am not a god.”

“So… what was that about paying us?”

Ruqian laughed. “You’re direct. I like that— it’s better than a lot of these cultivators tend to be, what with their obsequience and insufferable politeness and… well, you’ll understand eventually, when you’re recruited to the Bloody Saffron Sect.”

“You think they’ll recruit me?”

He gave her a ludicrous look, eyebrow raised beneath his hairline so doubtfully she imagined even the sky would think itself green beneath that gaze. “Please. Fishing for compliments doesn’t suit you— you’re obviously going to be recruited. If you got on a boat and went to the Ever-Joyous Harmony of Bells Sect I think you’d still have a pretty good chance of getting in— there’s nothing that says incredible cultivation potential quite like being capable of building Foundation Establishment qi gathering formations without a single technique to your name, in only a few weeks, on mortal stone, as a mortal. Do you know how ridiculous that is?”

“It’s just… normal. My master can do better, and he’s mortal too.” It had been difficult to learn, yes, incredibly so… but it hadn’t been some sort of secret supreme cultivation technique or anything. Anyone would be able to do the same thing she’d been able to, if they put enough work into it. Mostly. Maybe not so much with Mingtian’s notes on altering runes…

“I might have a thing or two I could scrounge up for you, but they’re mostly simple things— Shedding tier materials I’ve picked up from the various monsters I’ve hunted. A formations master would be able to do something with them, but you’ve already clearly advanced beyond that step…” he paused. “Perhaps… have you ever gone treasure hunting?”

“No?”

A slight grin crossed Ruqian’s face. “Well then! How do you feel about letting this senior teach you the respectable art of plundering natural treasures for all they’re worth?” He wilted a bit under Lily’s unimpressed stare. “I was trying to lighten the mood.” No response. “Fine, fine. I think there’s a good chance that there’s yang-aligned treasures on the inside of the mountain. You’d usually find yin-aligned treasures underground, but there’s obviously something beneath us making the mountain so yang aligned. It’d be pretty obvious if it were the heavens causing it— so there’s either some cool treasure below, or enough energy that some cool treasures would probably form.”

“And we could get those?” So sue her, despite herself she was interested. “What would we need to do? A secret technique? Some heaven-defying sutra?”

Ruqian gave her a smug look. “Simple. We go into the caves.”

Right.

Simple.

She sighed. This was going to be a whole thing, wasn’t it?