Chapter 121: The Voice from the Mysterious Pouch

"Looks like we're here." Reaching the meeting point, Wu Xin suddenly brought everyone behind her to a stop.

"Brother Han Kai?" Looking out into the dense forest ahead, she scanned slowly from side to side.

Her voice had barely faded when the sound of snapping branches came from the brush, and a cultivator stepped out.

"Ha?! Han Kai! Did you do that on purpose?! I nearly had an out-of-body experience because of you!" Clutching his chest, Silent Adrian shouted, scolding Han Kai for the way he'd appeared.

Completely ignoring the giant's theatrics, Wu Xin and the others walked closer. "Did you get here without any trouble?"

Han Kai nodded. "After Master Mo Fan released that horde of creatures, it'd be a miracle to find any living thing left in these parts at all."

Wu Xin smiled and pulled out a map, laying it out in front of her and making it hover in the air, then pointed to three spots on it. "We're here. This is the hidden entrance that'll get us into the Library without any trouble... and this is the den of a third-rank beast."

Hearing about the beast, everyone frowned, even Adrian fell silent instantly, dropping his usual theatrics.

“It’s fortunate that after receiving the inheritance, Master Mo Fan was able to show us exactly where the library is… otherwise, we wouldn’t have found it so easily, even if we knew its location thirty-seven years later… Hm.” Gen Lo suddenly offered his remark, which everyone promptly ignored, having long grown tired of his constant comments.

Tapping the third point, Wu Xin let out a breath. "In theory, the beast shouldn't be able to sense us. Even if it somehow catches wind of our energy while we're using our techniques, it's unlikely to travel that far just to catch the five of us... That'd be foolish of it."

Listening to her, everyone nodded, fully agreeing with her logic.

Just as they were about to set out, Han Kai suddenly looked at all of them. Letting out a deep breath, he decided it was better to just say what he was thinking, right then. "Once we leave this space, this Sacred Land... I'm going to part ways with you all."

Everyone froze at once and looked at him, faces full of surprise, no one had expected to hear this from him, of all people.

Adrian couldn't hold back and immediately shouted, "What about our mission?! Hm?! Are you planning to abandon that too?"

Before Kai could answer, Wu Xin studied him closely. "You met with him, didn't you?"

Everyone understood at once who she meant, and even Adrian lost interest in his own question.

Han Kai nodded. "Yes. The Glass Tear, carrying a fragment of my Master's soul, managed to lead me to him, not without some trouble, of course..." He remembered how the Glass Tear kept glitching, and even once he'd gotten close, nearly right up to the fire, the signal from the fragment inside the tear had been remarkably weak, something Kai had never encountered before.

"Then why did you decide to split off from us?" Gen Lo scratched his head, looking at him with a puzzled expression.

Looking around at everyone, Kai spoke, his voice carrying both weight and relief at once. "When I found him, he was sitting by a fire, right next to Xuan Lun..."

Hearing that name, Adrian and Gen Lo went pale, and Wu Xin and Isabelle both tensed. Memories flickered through their minds at once, of everything that had made this Xuan Lun both famous and feared.

"At first I thought they were part of the same group, but eventually I realized one of them had just run into the other by chance." Shaking his head, Kai continued. "After a long conversation with this younger version of my Master... hm, listening to him talk about nothing and everything at once, about some hidden meaning underneath it all... Listening to him, I realized something about myself, that for the first time, I want to live for myself." Reaching this point, he looked down at his own palm, at the tattoo of a swan etched into it.

"I'm tired... ever since I was born, my clan's forced me to do whatever they wanted, whatever served them. Even becoming part of this group, this mission... I never really saw the point in pinning so much hope on one single person, especially someone like-…" Saying this, he clenched his hand into a fist and fell silent.

The whole group fell into silence, all of them understanding him perfectly, after all, he wasn't the only one who'd been forced to sacrifice his own life, his own fate, his own future, for the sake of one person.

"You know, Sister Wu said almost the exact same thing. That we should set this mission down, the one dumped on our shoulders, and live for ourselves!" Gen Lo was the first to break the heavy silence, a somewhat dim smile on his face as he looked around at everyone.

Surprised to hear something like that attributed to Wu Xin, Kai turned to her, waiting for her answer.

Seeing the look on his face, Wu Xin smiled faintly, confirming Gen Lo's words.

Kai smirked. "I could've expected something like that from Brother Adrian, or Brother Gen, but from you, Sister Wu? What happened to you, did someone swap you out while I was gone?"

Suddenly the mood lightened considerably, and after a bit of laughter and small talk, they started gathering their things.

….

When Han Kai found himself alone for a moment, Saim Isabelle suddenly walked up to him.

"When you found him... was he-?" she asked quietly, glancing around to make sure no one else could hear.

Kai looked at her. 'She's spent more time with Master An than anyone else out of the five of us, same as me... I understand her reaction perfectly.'

Letting out a deep breath, "I don't know... The moment I saw him, it was like looking at a completely different person. His way of speaking, his voice, his appearance, even the way he moved… all of it wildly different from the Master I know."

"When we started talking, the way he looked at people, the way he treated others... that warmth, that care we're used to seeing from him, it's just gone. There's nothing but cold and unsettling emptiness in his eyes." Pulling the Glass Tear out of his ring, he studied it closely.

"His gaze... you remember, back during lectures, whenever Master An looked at you, you'd feel calm instantly, like you were shielded from any kind of danger... But the gaze I saw... it was the complete opposite."

"When he looks at you, it feels like he's looking straight through you, seeing everything underneath, and any strange behavior on your part would be shut down instantly. You feel this constant undercurrent of fear the moment you hold his gaze for more than a second... I haven't felt this uncomfortable in someone's presence in a very long time."

Listening to him, Isabelle frowned. "You think his change has something to do with us being transported here?"

Kai glanced off into the distance, where the others were getting ready to continue on. "I don't think so. Maybe Master An himself... isn't Master An."

"Y-you mean-?" Understanding what he meant, her eyes twitched suddenly.

"I don't know... I hope I'm wrong." Shaking his head, he gave a small nod, tilting his chin toward the others, already ready to move out.

….

"Everyone ready?" Wu Xin looked over the group, and seeing everyone prepared to continue, nodded and, whispering something, pulled out a flying artifact shaped like a boat, four meters long and two wide.

"Get in, it'll be faster and safer this way." Jumping in herself, she waved the others over.

"You sure about this? This little thing burns through a ridiculous amount of spirit stones, even just sitting still." Grabbing Gen Lo by the scruff of his neck and tossing him straight into the boat, Adrian climbed aboard with a wide grin, not forgetting to ask the question in his usual overly loud voice.

"Better to burn through more spirit stones than go without protection. Don't forget, there's a dangerous stretch coming up ahead!" Wu Xin, not even glancing his way, started pulling stones out of her ring and feeding them into the small iron furnace at the base of the boat's bow.

….

Plop! Plop!

Deep underground, inside a dark, rocky tunnel, An stopped in front of an enormous hole plunging into an abyss, drops of moisture from the ceiling running down and falling straight into the bottomless pit.

'If I'm reading the Qi right, that thing's right at the very bottom...' Tilting his head back, he started studying the thousands of runes carved into the walls and ceiling of the tunnel.

'These runes feel even older than the ones used for the formations and equipment back in the labs...' Committing every rune to memory, careful not to forget any of them, he lowered his gaze and peered through the thick darkness, straight down toward the bottom of the pit.

'The whole floor's covered in bones... but I'm pretty sure nothing down there is giving off Qi, besides me and that object. Even a third-rank creature would give off Qi I could pick up easily.' Picking up a small pebble off the ground, he tossed it down into the pit.

'As for a fourth-rank creature, I doubt this Sacred Land could even hold something that size... though that's just a guess on my part.'

Taking a step, he began falling after the pebble, down into the darkness.

Right before he reached the bone-strewn floor, he stopped himself, hovering in midair.

'Most of these skulls are human, only a small fraction from other creatures...' Drifting slowly toward one of the walls, he kept scanning everything around him, sensing the faintest shifts in Qi within a kilometer radius, though that range had shrunk somewhat, thanks to the dense rock around him, which somehow managed to partially block Qi.

Reaching one of the walls, he pressed a hand against it.

Crack!

A section of the wall shuddered and crashed to the ground with a loud clatter.

'Oh, this door's so old it's practically fused with the wall.' Drifting inside slowly, carefully, he found a small chamber, three skeletons lying at its center, dressed in strange armor that, oddly enough, still held its shine despite what must have been an unimaginable stretch of time.

Descending to the ground, step by step, he walked up to the skeletons and crouched down.

Digging through all three, he found two journals and a strange pouch that resembled a spatial one.

Opening the first journal, he found nearly every page had turned black, only a few scattered words and fragments of sentences still legible.

"--planetary qualification failed--"

"--primitive lifeform... narrow application of Qi--"

"--empty particles of Chaos--"

"--captain, vice-captain... beheaded... mutiny!--"

"--Sergeant Ford... the instigator!--"

Holding the journal, he thought it over. 'Hmm. Planetary qualification? Maybe that's tied somehow to determining a planet's status for the Upper World? Though it's strange… that journal from the other lab also called this planet primitive, and that spiritual body who tried to take over my own body said the exact same thing... Hm, maybe this isn't even about this Planet V-90A at all?'

'And about the mutiny, hm, maybe they found something worth the risk, worth going against their own crew for?' Tossing the journal aside, he picked up the second one.

'Oh, this one's got even less intact information...' Carefully turning each page, An read through whatever still remained legible.

"--Captain Eva told us Chaos energy is the energy of a true, ancient, higher race--"

"--the night spent in the cabin with Captain Eva was... incredible! Just hoping my Mia, waiting for me back home, never finds out--"

"--we've been stuck here too long... the Chaos energy that's broken through in several sectors means our distress signal can't reach the Membrane of the Great World--"

"--she's dead!.. he killed all of them!.. only five of us left!--"

"--we found some strange tunnels--"

'Hm, so what actually happened to you all in the end? Judging by your positions, no one attacked you, at least not physically...' Looking at the way the armored bodies were positioned, lying at the center of the room, An doubted anyone or anything had actually caught up with them. It looked more like a sudden death.

'Something like poison, maybe, or something similar released into the air without them noticing. Or maybe they made that choice themselves... hard to say.' Tossing the second journal beside the first, he turned his attention to the pouch.

Studying it from every angle, checking its Qi flows several times over, he still couldn't bring himself to touch it. 'Outside, I followed your Qi directly, little pouch... I understand there's no real danger here, but something deep down tells me something's still not right about this.'

Picking the pouch up in his hand, he still couldn't quite decide whether to channel his Qi inside it.

'Honestly... I'm not even sure I want to know what's inside you... Eh, fine! Curiosity wins this round!' Glancing toward the surface, he started scanning every trace of Qi within a radius of a little over a kilometer, searching for something specific.

A few seconds later, he locked in on exactly what he was looking for. 'Found it!'

In one sharp motion, he shot upward like an arrow, tearing a new tunnel straight toward the surface.

….

Crack!

"W-WHO'S THERE?!!" Gripping a sword in front of him, a cultivator spun toward the sound of snapping branches.

Standing frozen like that for over a minute, hands and legs shaking, he finally let out a breath. "Whew! I thought that was it for me..."

Lowering his sword, he looked around. 'Damn forest! Which way am I even supposed to go? I'm going to lose my mind at this rate!'

'Hm? Wait, what's that?' Suddenly he spotted, right past a cluster of bushes, in the middle of a small clearing, a flat stone, and on it, a strange pouch, gold engravings and patterns covering its surface, resembling some kind of ancient script.

"Is th-this it?! Is this my life-changing moment?! Just like that brother from the White Dragon Sect told me!" Throwing all caution to the wind, he sprinted through the bushes straight toward the pouch.

"He said the chosen ones, after enough unbearable suffering, get their chance! A chance to become a genius among geniuses! A ruler among rulers! Hahaha! My moment's finally here!"

Dropping to his knees in front of the pouch, he channeled his energy inside. "The hour of the Great-! Ah? AH?! AGH-AH!!"

Before he could even finish savoring his heavenly stroke of luck, every bit of skin and flesh on his body was sucked straight into the pouch, leaving behind nothing but a bare, still-red, blood-soaked skeleton.

….

Dropping down from the tree branches, An pushed the skeleton aside and looked at the pouch. 'Maybe that's exactly what happened to those three in the tunnel below... Then again, their positions suggest something else… maybe they were carrying this pouch with them at the time... Ugh! And here I actually wanted to open it...'

Losing any desire to even touch the thing, he turned and started walking away.

<"Hehehe! You're a lot sharper than the others who've had the honor of finding me before!"> Suddenly, he heard a woman's voice inside his own head, one that sounded closer to a child's.

Giving no reaction at all, An kept walking.

<"Don't pretend you didn't hear me and my charming little voice...">

Hearing the voice again, he finally stopped and turned to look at the pouch. 'I don't sense any danger, not like with that statuette inside my inner world, where my gut told me not to respond, no matter what... Here, my instincts are staying completely quiet... though that might just be because whatever's inside is at a much higher cultivation level than that was.'

<"Heh! Don't worry, I won't ensnare you just because you opened your mouth or answered me. That trick's for amateurs, heh!">

An frowned slightly, of everything in this world, he hated illusions and mind interference the most. 'Is she reading my thoughts? What's two times twenty-two?'

<"Heheheh! You've got the right idea, I can see your thoughts... they're an open book to me!">

Keeping his expression unchanged, a glint flickered through An's eyes. 'Heh. So she's lying... which means she's just pretending to read minds. She's probably just guessing, calculating the most likely thought pattern for someone in this exact situation... and everyone's thoughts would run more or less the same way in a moment like this.'

<"Hehe! Just like I said, no need to be afraid... Besides, this lady is starting to like you more and more!">