The night was dark, the wind fierce.
In a forest thick with sinister yin energy, two black shadows flew in from the east and west. The man from the east wore a black robe with his face covered, revealing only a pair of eyes that flashed with sharp light.
He scrutinized the person opposite him, who wore a ghost-face mask, then lowered his voice and spoke in a gloomy tone. "When the east is dark, the west is bright."
The other person inclined his body and replied, "Whatever your dad looks like, that's what I look like."
"Years Without Regret?" the hooded man in black asked.
"Are you Still Waters Run Deep?" the other person asked in turn.
The two looked at each other and nodded, only then drawing close.
The man in black formed hand seals with both hands, stomped his foot, and traced a circle around them. A silver ring enveloped them, and no sound or image could pass beyond it.
Only then did he completely lower his guard. "Sorry, brother. You know how tightly they've been cracking down on this lately. I had to be careful."
"I understand." The ghost-faced person nodded. "As long as the goods are real, a little trouble doesn't matter."
"Absolutely genuine," the man in black said.
The ghost-faced person asked again, "May I ask about your source?"
"Shh." The man in black raised a finger before his lips, then lightly pointed upward. "Hard to say."
The ghost-faced person looked up at the sky and smiled. "Then I can rest easy. If it weren't someone from the Nine Heavens, there'd be no way they could get their hands on this."
The man in black took a jade box from his robes. Upon opening it, a palm-sized jade slip lay quietly within, its front