Shen Yuxi rode an immortal crane toward Misty Spirit Peak.
The wind howled past his ears. Below lay rolling mountain ranges, while lush forests shimmered with layer upon layer of green beneath the sunlight. He lowered his eyes to watch the mountain shadows race past, still turning over True Person Yu Qing's words from earlier.
"If one day, I asked you to kill me?"
Those words, light as a sigh yet heavy as a boulder, circled endlessly through his mind.
Master was too strange today...
Why would he suddenly ask something like that? Was he testing me, or had he... sensed something?
The immortal crane beat its wings and passed through the final thin veil of clouds. Trunks like towering walls rose before them. Misty Spirit Peak had arrived.
He shook his head and forced back his tangled thoughts. Things he could not figure out would only become more troubling the more he dwelled on them. Since Master had summoned him here, he would explain the reason eventually.
The mountain slopes were gentle, the trees sparse and graceful, with halls half-hidden among them, neither flaunting nor concealing themselves. When the wind passed, leaves rustled softly, yet it did not feel noisy. Instead, it made the mountain seem even quieter.
The immortal crane landed steadily upon the bluestone platform at the peak. Its talons made almost no sound as they touched down. Shen Yuxi leaped from its back and looked up—True Person Yu Qing stood before Clear Parasol Hall.
That figure stood outside the hall doors, clad in a blue-green Daoist robe, hands folded behind his back.
A thread of unease rose in Shen Yuxi's heart for no reason. The first impression Misty Spirit Peak gave today was "empty." It was a near-ethereal silence, as though even the wind had frozen