In the wilderness.
Shangguan Siheng had only just managed to shake off the pursuers behind him when, as he prepared to take a pill and recover a little, he saw someone rapidly approaching from the shadows ahead.
He hastily summoned his flying sword. "Who?!"
"It's me."
Shangguan Siheng cautiously studied the other party, then revealed a delighted expression. "Fellow Daoist Chen? I only knew you were at the border. I never thought I'd run into you here."
"Yes, neither did I."
Chen Sanshi said, "I'd originally planned to find time to exchange information with you after finishing my business. Instead, we met ahead of time."
"Wonderful!"
Shangguan Siheng said, "Brother Chen, come with me. A senior in our sect happens to want to see you. He says there is an important matter to discuss."
"Dugu Ao?"
Based on what he had seen and heard earlier, Chen Sanshi made his own guess.
"Brother Chen knows Senior Dugu?"
Slightly surprised, Shangguan Siheng admitted, "Senior Dugu is the one leading us at the border this time."
"Take me to him."
Chen Sanshi did not waste words, though he was curious what Dugu Ao wanted with him.
The two moved through the darkness in concealment, eventually arriving outside an abandoned tiled house in a corner of a village.
"Elder Dugu!"
Shangguan Siheng came to the broken window. "I've brought Chen Sanshi back!"
"Come in."
A deep middle-aged man's voice sounded from inside the house.
Pushing open the rotten wooden door, they found no furniture whatsoever in the dust-covered room, only a gray-robed man standing with his hands behind his back.
Pale moonlight brought faint illumination to the cramped space. They could see that the man wore a pure-white Fox Mask, and was currently admiring the starry sky through a hole in the roof beam.