Joseph's fingers kept tracing the broken edge of his wooden sword as they walked. The splintered wood caught on his calluses, a rough reminder of how close they'd come to dying. Lin Yue moved ahead like a shadow between the trees, her shoulders tense.
Ping An knew.
The thought wouldn't leave him. Joseph replayed every interaction since waking in this world—the way Ping An had smirked during meditation, the jade amulet pressed into his palm, that cryptic warning about the forest "knowing when someone doesn't belong."
Was it the way I held my sword? Joseph flexed his aching hand. He'd copied the others' stances, but maybe his grip had been wrong. Or when I said Elder Feng was the "Sect Leader" before anyone told me he was? According to the novel he'd read, new disciples weren't formally presented to the sect master until the tenth day. Yet he said his name with confidence.
A branch snapped underfoot. Lin Yue's head whipped around, her eyes sharp as daggers. "Focus."
"Sorry." Joseph forced his attention back to the mist-choked path. "Just thinking about weapons. Mine's kind of..." He wiggled the broken sword hilt.
Lin Yue didn't slow her pace. "You don't need one."
Joseph blinked. "Because I've got you?"
For half a heartbeat, he thought she might actually smile. Instead, she said flatly, "I won't argue with such reasoning. But I too have limitations."
Joseph nearly tripped over a root. Did Lin Yue just admit she wasn't perfect? The girl who meditated without blinking, who moved through sword forms like breathing? He hurried to catch up, curiosity burning through his fatigue.
"Hey, Yue…" He hesitated, choosing his words carefully. "Do you still have memories of your..." he whispered. "Past life?"
Her steps faltered. Just for a second.
"That's ridiculous." She sped up, putting distance between them.
Joseph persisted. "It seemed reasonable"
Lin Yue spun so fast her braid lashed Joseph's cheek. "Stop talking." Her whisper cut like ice.
Behind them, the underbrush rustled.
Not the wind. Something bigger.
Lin Yue was already moving, her boots barely touching the ground as she sprinted into the fog.
"Wait!" Joseph lunged after her, but she'd vanished like smoke. The forest swallowed her whole, leaving him alone with the creeping mist and whatever lurked within it.
The jade amulet burned against his chest—a warning. "AHH", Joseph sharply reacted as the heat pierced through his skin.
Joseph ran. Chasing after Lin Yue
Branches clawed at his robes as he crashed through the undergrowth. Lin Yue's footprints appeared and disappeared in the patchy mud, leading him deeper into territory the trial hadn't covered. The trees grew taller here, their trunks twisted into unnatural shapes.
She shouldn't be this fast. Joseph's lungs burned. Even with cultivation-enhanced stamina, he was falling behind.
A flicker of movement ahead—a pale sleeve vanishing around a mossy boulder. Joseph skidded after it, rounding the stone to find…
Nothing.
Just an empty clearing where the mist coiled like living things. No Lin Yue. No path. Just a circle of towering pines and, at the center, a single jade-green blossom glowing faintly in the dim light.
Joseph approached slowly. The flower pulsed as if breathing, its petals unfolding to reveal a dark center that shimmered like oil on water. The sight made his stomach twist.
This isn't a spirit blossom.
He'd read about these in the novel—Meng Po Flowers, traps left by ancient cultivators to snare the unwary. They showed visions of…
A hand clamped over his mouth from behind.
"Don't look." Lin Yue's breath warmed his ear as she dragged him backward. "It drinks memories."
Joseph went rigid. Her grip was iron, her body pressed against his back. For someone who hated touching, she held on like she was afraid he'd dissolve.
The flower trembled.
Then screamed.
The sound wasn't sound—it vibrated through Joseph's bones, through the earth itself. Lin Yue's arms tightened around him as the clearing erupted.
Dirt geysered upward as something burst from beneath the flower. A mass of writhing black roots, each thicker than Joseph's thigh, surging toward them like striking serpents.
Lin Yue shoved him sideways. "RUN!"
Joseph rolled to his feet just as a root speared the spot where he'd stood. Another lashed toward Lin Yue—she sliced it cleanly, but three more took its place.
He scrambled for his broken sword, but the roots moved faster. One wrapped around his ankle, yanking him off his feet. The world flipped upside down as he was hoisted into the air.
Not again!
The amulet flared white-hot. A root near his face recoiled like it had been burned.
Lin Yue leapt, her blade a silver arc. The root holding Joseph split open, spraying foul-smelling sap. He hit the ground hard, gasping as the remaining roots recoiled—not from Lin Yue's sword, but from him. From the amulet's glow now visible through his robes.
Lin Yue stared at his chest, then at his face. Her expression did something complicated.
The roots regrouped with a wet, slithering sound.
No time to explain.
Joseph grabbed Lin Yue's wrist. "Which way?!"
She didn't pull away. "Follow my steps exactly."
They ran—not blindly, but in a strange, zigzagging pattern Lin Yue seemed to pull from memory— as this wasn't her first time doing the mist path trail. Joseph matched her footfalls perfectly. The roots gave chase, but always a second too late, as if the path itself confused them.
The mist thickened. Lin Yue's grip on his wrist tightened like a vise.
Then—
Sunlight.
They burst from the tree line into the trial's main path, collapsing onto the worn stones. The roots stopped at the forest's edge, twitching angrily before retreating into the gloom.
Silence.
Joseph lay on his back, gulping air. Lin Yue knelt beside him, her usually pristine robes streaked with dirt and sap. For once, she looked as ragged as he felt.
"You knew that thing was there," Joseph panted.
Lin Yue wiped her blade clean with deliberate slowness. "I felt its pull."
"Before we entered the clearing?"
She sheathed her sword. "Before we left the sect."
Joseph sat up sharply. "You led us there?"
Lin Yue met his gaze without flinching. "I needed to be sure."
"Sure of wh—"
"So that's why you chose me, I was that disposable new guy". Joseph spat, as fury burned through his words.
The amulet chose that moment to fall from his torn robes, landing between them with a dull thud. Its glow faded, revealing intricate carvings now cracked along one side.
Lin Yue exhaled through her nose. " You shouldn't have that".
Joseph's mouth went dry. "Ping A—"
"Later." She stood abruptly, scanning the trees. "Someone's here."
A twig snapped somewhere to their left. Then another, closer.
Not roots this time. Footsteps.