"The cave where the class monitor went into seclusion should still be up there."
Bronya followed close behind, her boot soles crunching faintly against the bluestone steps.
The two climbed the stairs.
A moment later, the view opened up.
A waterfall thundered on the left, while a stone arch spanned the gap on the right.
Sunlight pierced the mist, refracting into a brilliant rainbow that overlapped perfectly with the cold, hard stone bridge.
Beautiful, certainly.
But eerily quiet.
Not even a single bird.
Bronya frowned slightly. "Are you sure this is the place? Searching out in the wilderness sounds like something from an online game. Besides, Teacher Fu Hua has been gone for ages. Even if she left anything behind, wouldn't someone passing through have taken it already?"
Kiana did not look back, her gaze sweeping over the cracks in the rock face.
"There are things ordinary mortal eyes simply can't see."
Before she had finished speaking.
Both of them froze.
A thought flashed through their minds like lightning.
They spoke in unison. "The Feather of Yu Duchen!"
Once the clues connected, their search became twice as efficient.
But there was no shortage of strange things.
The concentration of Honkai energy at the Red Kite Immortal's secluded retreat was absurdly high.
Stranger still, Honkai Beasts were actually prowling here.
Just as their doubts arose.
A familiar fluctuation pierced their senses.
Kiana stopped abruptly.
At the cliff's edge.
A feather stood quietly in the soil.
Red light flowed over it, like embers rekindling.
"Here!"
Bronya's pupils contracted. "There was clearly nothing there just now... It only appeared when we came closer. Do you know how to activate it?"
"I'll try."
Kiana closed her eyes and focused.
Following the mental discipline Fu Hua had taught her, she tried to communicate with that