I'm so tired, really, of the entire order of those nutcrackers. They've been my shadow practically ever since we left the sect originally, and have been tripping me almost every step of the way. Now, the truth is probably the opposite; they've been around for so long their roots had penetrated so deep into the ground they can't be sensed, while I'm the newcomer with a shovel digging around like a freakin' mole.
But still...
"Everything alright, Master?" Long Tao asked as I turned toward them. Twenty-six hours. Can it even be done? A quest with 'Legendary' difficulty... at the very least, it is not asking us to kill the Sage, which either means we physically cannot with our current strength, or at least it'd take too long or too much of us.
Just to stop it... well, it might not be impossible, but I very much doubt the guy will just laze around and ignore us trying to do it.
"Neither of you have sensed it?" I probed Long Tao and Lao Shun.
"Sensed what?" they asked somewhat cutely at the same time.
"They're here, too," I said. "And concocting something that's about to infect the array completely."
"... the Sages?" Lao Shun frowned. "Are you sure? I haven't sensed anything drawing Life Qi toward it."
"Because that's not what it is," I said. "It's a different kind of a parasite; as I said, it will infect the array and trap everyone inside, slowly draining us of life until we are all dead."
"Should I even bother asking how you could possibly know that?" Lao Shun looked rather tired as he asked.
"You have the tongue and the lips and the throat," I said. "And a mind young enough to form words and sentences. You have the ability to ask anything of anyone. Don't sell yourself short."
"One day I'll concoct a pill that will make you go bald," he said. "And you won't even know which one it is."
"I think I'd look great bald."
"No, no you don't."
"... alright, your pettiness aside," I said. "I really don't know anything else. Not where it is, not what it looks like, not even who the Sage is."
"Wait--there is a Sage in here? Now?" Lao Shun quickly asked.
"... yes."
"How much time do we have?" Long Tao suddenly interjected before Lao Shun could tell me we need to leave.
"About a day before we are trapped," I said.
"Hm," his brows furrowed as his fingers rapped against the table for a moment. "That's not a long time."
"No, it's not," I said, sighing. "So, what we're going to do is this: we'll spread out and search for about half a day. Being careful goes to the top; make sure nobody discovers us. If, after twelve hours, we have found nothing, we will pack our bags and leave. If we do find something by some miracle, unless it can be interfered with stealthily, we will leave it be and get out."
"... are you sure, Master?" Long Tao asked, his brows arching. "If we do, this entire city will likely die."
"..." the words haunted me and caused my heart to stop for a second. Of course I wanted to stay and save them--I had to fight against every single one of my instincts to say otherwise. But... I'm worried. I'm worried that, one of these days, the kids will suffer unto my naive 'savior' complex or whatever it is. "Twelve hours," I said, gritting my teeth. "Be careful."
"... no seconds to waste, then," Lao Shun said as he stood up. "Tao and I will go. You stay here and wait for the kids; make sure everyone is ready to leave at a moment's notice."
"Hm."
It was not six seconds after the two left before Han Yimu spoke up.
"Who are Sages, Master?" he asked.
"Haah, I'm not quite sure myself, Yimu," I said. "Some ways back, we came across a small village in the middle of nowhere. Everything seemed ordinary except that there were some villagers who fell into what was essentially an eternal sleep. Alive, but not quite. We stayed to see if we could help, and eventually figured out that the source of it was some kind of a Parasitic Vine. It infiltrated the people's minds and would slowly suck their Life Qi away until they died. We ended up killing it, and learning from the man who brought it there of the Sages.
"Since then," I continued. "We kept encountering the Vines. Cities, wilderness, you name it. We even ended up running into one of the Sages and killing him. In fairness, he was extremely weakened and yet, even in that state, if he had remained of clear mind... who knows what would have happened. Even the thing you came down here to investigate is linked to them."
"They caused the realm's destruction?" he frowned as he asked.
"No," I shook my head. "No, that was one of the sect's own Elders. But, they tempted her with something she failed to achieve on her own--ability to ascend. I... I ended up killing one of them. I'm not sure whether he was a Sage or just a member of their order, but he was... quite strong."
"... huh."
"What is it?" I asked since it looked as though something in his mind clicked.
"No, it might be nothing," he said. "But... in one of the history books dating back to the Epoch of Wars, I read that the very first Order of the Sages was formed. They were original scholars and theorists of the martial arts; though they themselves weren't necessarily talented, they had the ability to teach others and were greatly revered. However, among them, there were those who were... hungry for even more knowledge. They sought to understand things that everybody else deemed impossible.
"One of those Sages, Sage Shēnyuān, looked further back into the past, before even the Age of the Beginning when the first humans emerged. According to the codex, he sought to understand the Primordial Life, and eventually ended up declaring the existence of something he called 'The Abyss'. According to him, it was a mid-membrane of reality where beings that eclipsed even Dao itself in power resided, and if one could awaken one of those beings... they would become the ruler of the entire cosmos."
"Is that so?"
"Nobody believed him, of course," Han Yimu chuckled. "He was discredited and stripped of his Sage title, founding an order called 'Sages of the Abyss' in an attempt to rise back up. According to the text, though, they were destroyed immediately each and every time they'd appear, citing their blasphemous view of Dao."
"So, you don't think the Abyss is real?" I asked.
"No," he replied. "Before we had fully mapped out the worlds, there were a lot of places like the Abyss. These supposedly hard-to-reach dimensions containing things beyond our understanding. Not one of them was ever proven to be true; merely desires or fantasies or yearnings of those who created them. Just like them, the Abyss doesn't exist."
"Huh," that's a... surprising bit of history that I'd learned, honestly. If Han Yimu knows it, chances are that Long Tao knows it, too. But, well, he'd never really shared. Maybe, one of these days, he'll recall his granduncle's tale, too.
"It is real," a youthful, somewhat annoyed voice suddenly spoke up. I looked over and saw that Light was pouting as she stared at the both of us.
"What is real, Light?" I asked.
"The Abyss."
"... huh?"
"My papa said that it exists," she said. "And that's where Demon God lives. He took me there and I saw it. It is a prison," she added. "With no beginning or end."
Heyo, hope you enjoyed the chapter ^^The wedding yesterday ran quite late; I ended up coming back home sometime past 11 and basically only had the time to shower before conking out on my bed. But, no more social obligations for the foreseeable future. It'll take me month alone to recover from that one, I feel.