Wen Xu and Zheng Jin had left early that morning and returned only after nightfall. They had gone to more than just the Zhu Residence, of course. Zhu Chang was alive but missing, and the Hundred Herbs Pavilion was the likeliest place he had disappeared. Since the two of them were already going to investigate the Dark Cauldron there, they could look for him along the way.
"Are you sure this is the Hundred Herbs Pavilion?"
Looking at the ruins before them, Zheng Jin was no longer so certain. "I've been away from Mingxuan City for sixty or seventy years. Maybe the sect moved?"
"...Someone snapped the sect's signboard in two. They did what we wanted to do."
Zheng Jin vaguely remembered the Hundred Herbs Pavilion's entrance as a riot of flowers, so lush and prosperous that anyone passing by had to remark on its vitality and wealth. Now, forget vitality—even the flatbread shop on the next street was cleaner than this place.
"Well, let's go in and take a look."
The two entered the ruins with swords in hand. All they saw was scorched earth and broken timber, with no sign of blood or bodies. "The sect's protective formation seems to have been broken from within. The fire probably started inside too."
The Hundred Herbs Pavilion had housed countless rare flowers and herbs. Most famous was the towering Jade Banyan Tree in its courtyard, known to all. Called No Spring, it was the Sacred Tree contracted to the pavilion's founding patriarch. It bloomed once every thousand years and bore fruit a thousand years later. Spring came for it only once a millennium, and even then only if the tree itself wished it. That was why Mingxuan City held Spring Prayer festivities every year.
When No Spring bloomed, anyone who