Let's go, let's go.

Shi Yu opened his eyes. He had slept incredibly well last night, much to his own surprise. With everything that had happened, and having joined an organization, he should have been excited.

Shi Yu wriggled vigorously in bed a couple of times, then stretched as far as he could.

"Uuuughhhh-"

After stretching, Shi Yu sprang upright in bed. Although the Staircase of Thought had not improved his physique, he was clearly stronger than before.

Shi Yu remembered what Shen Bai had said.

"Even if the Staircase doesn't strengthen your physique, awakening your talent will still improve it."

Shi Yu looked at his left hand.

Only a pale pink mark remained there now.

Although the cut he had made with the razor blade had not been particularly deep, it had still been a large gash. This speed of recovery was already far beyond anything human medicine could achieve.

The Hunter's ointment. Thought's yearning.

Shi Yu flexed his hand and stopped dwelling on what had already happened. He pulled on his clothes. He still remembered that he had something to do today.

Huang Daye's and his wife's rings.

Shi Yu was going to fulfill Huang Daye's last wish.

Shi Yu finished dressing and opened his bedroom door. Sure enough, Han He was already sitting on the living room sofa.

Han He wore sweatpants and only a tight athletic tank top on his upper body, sitting cross-legged on the sofa with his phone in his hands.

Breakfast was already laid out on the table beside him. The steamed buns and congee were still giving off faint wisps of steam, as though they had just been bought.

What time does Han He even get up... I don't hear a thing.

Thinking this, Shi Yu walked into the living room.

Han He raised his head too. Seeing Shi Yu approach, he stood up and said:

"You're awake? Let's have breakfast."

Shi Yu nodded. Looking at the buns and congee on the table, he felt a little embarrassed again.

"Aw... look at you, buying breakfast again. You're spending too much. Next time you go, give me a shout. It's my turn to treat you."

Han He pulled over a stool and sat down, then said to the slightly awkward Shi Yu:

"It's fine. I'm staying at your place, so I should compensate you."

After saying that, Han He paused, then added:

"I have plenty of money."

Shi Yu felt even more embarrassed when he heard that.

Look at what I've driven the poor kid to-he's talking nonsense.

They were both students, and both had lost their families. Where would they get any income? If his family hadn't left him a home, he would probably have been sleeping on the streets himself.

Shi Yu sighed and said:

"All right, all right, Mr. Moneybags. Let me do my part another day. We can take turns. How does that sound?"

Seeing Shi Yu's insistence and conviction, Han He could only quietly put away his phone and nod.

"All right."

Out of Shi Yu's sight, the account balance on Han He's phone quietly changed. The fifth digit before the decimal point ticked over, but the two digits ahead of it remained unmoved.

After the two finished breakfast, they quickly got dressed and ready, taking everything they needed. Then Shi Yu took out Huang Daye's rings.

They were two very, very ordinary silver rings, clearly many years old. Their originally silver surfaces had darkened slightly from oxidation. Without patterns or inlaid stones, the two silver rings lay quietly in Shi Yu's palm.

"...That's right... let's go."

They went out. Shi Yu led the way through a gap in the fence surrounding the residential complex, then turned toward the mountains along a path strewn with sand and gravel.

The mountains where Shi Yu lived were not towering peaks like those famous mountains. Their greatest feature was how they stretched on and on.

They were not high, but not particularly low either. Countless trees grew over range after range, spreading out the map of the Northeast across this desolate land. Those endless undulations held thousands upon thousands of breaths, and even in the depths of winter, the green never vanished.

People always walked these mountains. Their footsteps had worn a path through them, and that path branched and extended through the mountains like a dividing blood vessel.

Shi Yu and Han He passed the last house at the foot of the mountain. Listening to the big dog's barking slowly fade behind them, they looked at the golden birches and wild beans bearing seedpods ahead, stepped onto a clump of grass with hooked seeds, and headed up the mountain.

Han He, of course, needed no explanation. A Hunter's Tenth Art was Entering the Wild. Going into nature felt even better than coming home. His steps were steady and his breathing even, without the slightest sign of fatigue.

But at that moment, Han He was a little surprised.

He watched Shi Yu walking ahead of him, showing no signs of tiredness either. Even his breathing had not grown uneven.

This stretch was already fairly difficult, and they were both moving fast. In Han He's experience, even someone in good physical condition would be breathing unevenly after coming this far at this pace. Shi Yu's physique after awakening was roughly at that level.

But Shi Yu was not.

Han He noticed that Shi Yu's movements and posture were all highly practiced, conserving his strength as much as possible. Even his choice of footholds was remarkably precise.

It was as though he had walked this path hundreds or thousands of times.

"You know this path well?"

Han He's voice came from behind him. Shi Yu slowed slightly when he heard it, then said:

"Ah, yeah. I used to come here for walks whenever I had nothing to do. I even had to cross this mountain to get to school before. That middle school, you know the one."

"Oh," Han He replied.

Honestly, he would never have guessed. In Han He's impression, Shi Yu was someone who spent every break slumped over his desk unless he needed the bathroom. He had never imagined the other boy would climb mountains in his free time.

Even so...

Han He watched Shi Yu give a little hop, easily clearing a fallen branch to land on the only rock among a patch of dead grass, then lift his body slightly, barely making a sound.

Unexpectedly... agile.

Han He followed close behind. They passed through a stretch of low trees that had already shed many of their leaves. The path underfoot now curved in another direction, while Shi Yu was clearly heading a different way from any of those paths.

Shi Yu stopped in front of two pine trees and took a moment to steady his breathing. He turned back to Han He.

"There's no path from here on. Watch your step."

After saying that, Shi Yu seemed to feel that saying something like this to a Hunter of the Ninth Art was a little too presumptuous. He laughed and said:

"Heh, it's been a while since I came this way too. If I get stuck, give me a hand."

Han He nodded and made an OK sign.

Sure enough, the way ahead was difficult.

As expected, taking a route others had never traveled meant paying a greater price.

Shi Yu moved forward step by step. The slope began to steepen, and the surrounding vegetation grew thickly here without human interference. The blackjack and cocklebur seeds were just ripening, and Shi Yu distinctly felt their itchy pricking as he passed.

The Japanese hops, by contrast, had failed to crowd out the other plants in the mountains. Their fine vines stretched over a few branches, and Shi Yu pushed them aside with a stick he had picked up.

Green, yellow, brown.

The plants in the autumn mountains displayed their final frenzy. Beneath the shade of the trees, Jerusalem artichoke blossoms shone as yellow as the sun.

Shi Yu pressed his chest pocket, constantly checking that the rings were still there. Han He followed close behind him.

Soon, Shi Yu reached a steep rock face.

Shi Yu drew a deep breath, mustered all his strength, and climbed up using both hands and feet.

Shi Yu remembered the first time he had come here.

When he had had nothing.

Lost and helpless, Shi Yu himself had not known where he was going.

He had taken a route no one had walked, pushed through dense vegetation, and climbed the steep rock face. His lungs had been like an overloaded blower, each breath bringing a tugging pain.

But the instant he looked up-

The gloom, damp, and stifling heat had suddenly all been swept away.

At a high point on the mountain, the trees gave way, and the sky was bluer than blue. A spread of delicate little flowers swayed in the wind. In that early spring season, the azalea blossoms had tinged Shi Yu's face red.

Now, Shi Yu slowly straightened. This time, he was no longer panting for breath.

Han He stepped over a jutting rock and planted his feet firmly, looking into the distance.

The mountains encircled the little city in an embrace, like the beginning of a mother's cradling arms.

"What a... lovely place."

Shi Yu's expression softened. He slowly took out Huang Qingyang's rings. The light of the clear autumn morning washed over the darkened silver rings, brightening them and gilding them with a radiant halo, reflecting the sun's shape on the two rings pressed together.

In Shi Yu's eyes, silver flowed lightly. He paced slowly across the open ground, then stopped.

"Here."

Han He took out the little shovel they had found last night and dug a small hole where Shi Yu indicated.

Han He dug a little deeper. He knew some animals liked to turn over soil that carried a scent.

Shi Yu carefully wrapped up Huang Qingyang's rings and gently placed them in the little hole, then filled it in together with Han He.

Shi Yu took out a small bottle of baijiu. The instant he opened it, the sharp scent of liquor spread from the mouth of the bottle.

Splash-

Shi Yu poured the liquor onto the filled-in patch of earth until not a single drop remained.

He really should have said something at that moment, but Shi Yu could not get the words out.

He did not know how to face this old man, nor how to comfort the classmates and teachers who had died.

Shi Yu could only stand there blankly, then turn back to look toward the distant school.

After a long while, Shi Yu spoke.

"...Let's... go."

Shi Yu said to Han He.