A story had indeed been written in A Plea for Thirty-Six Years of Romantic Tales.
The story read:
After the cultivator of "Li Thunder" disappeared from the Ning Family, he devoted himself to cultivation, yet lived in constant dread. The thing he feared drew ever closer. Then one day, he suddenly sensed that his terror was approaching. He fled for his life, but his wits deserted him at every turn. Blundering blindly about, he was finally captured by the very thing he feared.
The final passage of the story contained a single sentence:
"I shall take the place of what this man fears."
Below the story was another line of tiny writing, a muddled, jumbled Tribulation Divination that also showed Li Fuchan the entire process by which Three Nothing had inferred his secret.
"He must be cultivating 'Li Thunder.' I couldn't have mistaken that. But he has hidden himself, and that is equally undeniable."
"Could something have changed about 'Li Thunder'?"
"No, impossible. 'Li Thunder' cannot possibly change..."
"What if it did?"
"Very well. I'll wager that some unknown change has occurred in his 'Li Thunder,' allowing him to lurk unseen despite bearing this Dao Lineage."
The page bearing this story had been torn out, and after the story, there was also an illustration.
Its background was a bluestone Arch Bridge.
On one side of the Arch Bridge stood a young man in black robes, both hands tucked into his sleeves, his eyes lowered toward something below. At his feet, a youth knelt prostrate, holding something in his hands, his posture abject.
Behind the black-robed man, a faintly visible hand was just about to settle on his shoulder.
This illustration had also been torn out.
Perhaps this was the condition required to activate this Magical Treasure, and