[ Weicheng's POV ]
Our eyes were about to burst from our skulls.
Before anyone could intervene, Lady Suan Ming drew a sharp, silver blade across her own wrist and began tracing intricate lines over her flesh as if it were a blank piece of parchment. I took a frantic step forward, my hands instinctively reaching out to stop her from committing such a horrific act of self-mutilation, but a violent surge of invisible energy threw me back. The ancient runes spiraling around her form had materialized into a solid, blinding barrier of defensive magic, completely sealing her off from the physical world.
"I can't believe this..." Princess Xiao'er whispered in absolute horror. She slapped a trembling hand over her mouth, her eyes gaping wide as she stared at the grisly spectacle.
Lady Suan Ming's expression remained entirely serene, her blind eyes closed as her fingers tracked the final, agonizing strokes of a four-leaf petal design directly into her own skin. The moment the pattern was complete, the three clay jars containing the blood of our toxic-free offerings—the fish, the rodent, and the falcon—suddenly lifted into the air. They began to float in a slow, rhythmic circle, encircling her floating form like cosmic sentinels.
The runes flared with a blinding, celestial light.
A heavy, sickening realization crashed over my mind. She was sealing her own soul into the dimensional matrix of the Night Pavilion. The fire element required to break the barrier was never supposed to be a literal flame—it was the scorching, vital heat of her own living blood. She had willfully sacrificed her very soul to grant us passage. Even Master Dan Pu Chi, whose stoic, weathered face had remained completely unbothered through every imperial crisis, started creasing his brow in deep, visible distress.
Clutching her bleeding arm, Lady Suan Ming began to chant in a low, vibrating, otherworldly tongue as she waited within the burning center of the runes.
Fresh imperial blood kept flowing from her severed wrist, her body shuddering as she seared in absolute, excruciating pain. The crimson drops dripped steadily into the final floating jar, and the moment the vessel was filled, her wrist erupted into a brilliant, glowing white light. The flesh warped, scarred, and cooled until it perfectly formed the permanent image of a four-leaf flower.
"That—" Ji Wok stuttered, his voice completely losing its usual military composure.
"The Fire Flower Petals," Master Dan Pu Chi finished the sentence, his voice dropping into an ominous, heavy register.
Bai Ku Ji stood entirely in awe, his scholarly eyes darting frantically between the glowing mark and the ancient text in his mind. "What does it mean, Master? What does the symbol signify?" He was entirely unaware of the event, which wasn't surprising; this dark, primordial legend was one of the most closely guarded secrets in forbidden history.
I had to give a silent award to Mu Lin for introducing me to this forbidden lore winters ago. Having grown up isolated in the harsh mountain ranges, I had spent countless candlelit nights studying obscure medical books and ancient history scrolls to survive. I knew exactly what kind of nightmare we were looking at.
"The Fire Flower Petals are the physical manifestation of a soul-tampering curse," I started off, my voice projecting a grim authority that caused the entire vanguard to turn and listen to me. "The fire flower only accommodates clean blood—meaning a soul that is entirely pure of intention and free of deceit. By completing those lines, she has enacted a soul contract between herself and the spatial dimension of the Night Pavilion."
"In each leaf is the exact equivalence of thirty minutes," Master Dan continued seamlessly, picking up the thread as his eyes locked onto the glowing brand. "The moment a petal mark turns a stark, burning red, it will begin to incinerate her wrist from the inside out. The Night Pavilion is giving us exactly two hours to reach the highest peak."
"Or else...?" Princess Xiao'er asked, her voice cracking with a rare, fragile vulnerability.
"Or else, the Night Pavilion will permanently claim the contract," Master Dan stated flatly. "It will seal her soul into the architecture and burn her physical body into absolute ashes."
The moment the four petals dried completely into her flesh, Lady Suan Ming's eyes snapped open, and she gasped as she regained consciousness. The defensive runes shattered into harmless sparks, and we immediately rushed forward, catching her fragile frame and assisting her to stand upright.
We watched in silence as the towering, invisible barrier before us began to shimmer and lower down into the earth, indicating that her soul offering had been formally accepted by the Pavilion.
The clock was officially ticking.
The vast, unmapped fields of the outer perimeter welcomed us, but the territory had no intention of making our ascension easy. The sky blacked out completely within seconds, and the weather violently shifted as a torrential, icy rain began to pour down upon our heads. I glanced over at Lady Suan Ming; the absolute agony of the curse was already taking its toll. Her lips were turning a sickly, pale blue.
"This is not good," Ji Wok said, stepping forward and using his broad shoulders to try and block the downpour from covering Lady Suan Ming.
Because of the volatile nature of the Fire Flower Petals, Lady Suan Ming's entire internal anatomy was actively burning with a supernatural, localized fire. The freezing drops of the mountain rain colliding with her feverish skin made the structural contrast entirely unbearable for her. Seeing her shudder, I immediately unclasped my heavy wool riding cape, stepping forward to wrap it securely over her trembling shoulders.
"We need shelter!" Eun Jo called out through the roaring wind.
Spotting a massive, ancient cedar tree with a wide, hollow canopy, we rushed beneath its branches to settle her frame for a temporary moment, watching helplessly as the heavy rain turned the dirt paths into an absolute swamp. Desperate to counteract the internal frost, Eun Jo and Master Dan quickly struck a matchstick, shielding the tiny flame with their cloaks to create a small pocket of warmth near her chest.
"The Night Pavilion is actively tricking us," I muttered, my eyes narrowing as I watched the deluge. "It is intentionally consuming our limited time by throwing these environmental setbacks in our path."
As if responding to my irritation, the rain abruptly ceased, the storm clouds parting just as quickly as they had formed. We immediately mobilized, pushing forward through the thick mud until the path terminated without warning at the banks of a roaring, violently churning river.
"You've got to be kidding me," Princess Xiao'er said in complete, exhausted exasperation, throwing her hands in the air. "How can we even help Lady Suan Ming cross this time? The rapids are too strong!"
Master Dan and Eun Jo both slowly turned their heads, their analytical gazes locking onto my exact position.
"Weicheng can't swim, either," Eun Jo noted quietly.
The moment the words left his mouth, I saw every single member of the vanguard shift their eyes to look at me. Ji Wok actually let out a rare, genuine smile, shaking his head in amusement. "You are undeniably the absolute weirdest martial arts student I have ever encountered in my entire life, Cheng."
"Give me a absolute break, Ji Wok!" I snapped, looking at him in total disbelief. "I lived in the landlocked mountains! Where exactly was I supposed to practice swimming?"
He simply shrugged his shoulders, a playful glint in his eye as he reached out and lightly flicked my forehead.
"Stop flirting out here in the open," we suddenly heard Tae Hua groan from the front, his voice dripping with a deep, hot-tempered annoyance as he glared at us from the riverbank. We both simply shrugged our shoulders, entirely unbothered by his outburst.
I took a deep breath, trying to calculate a solution, but Master Dan was already moving. Without a word of warning, our master unhitched his heavy uniform cape, dove headfirst into the freezing, violent rapids, and began swimming with powerful, rhythmic strokes toward the opposite bank.
We all stood frozen in absolute shock, watching him battle the current entirely without us.
"Master!" Eun Jo shouted in disbelief, but Master Dan ignored the call, aggressively pulling his body through the water until his boots safely embedded into the far sandbank. The moment he arrived on the opposite side, he wasted no time; he marched straight into the treeline and began gathering thick, fallen logs.
Understanding his tactical genius, the candidates looked at each other and smiled. One by one, Eun Jo, Tae Hua, Ji Wok, and Ku Ji stripped off their heavy outer capes, tossing them to the mud before diving into the river to follow Master Dan's lead.
"Princess, please assist and monitor Lady Suan Ming's medical condition," Tae Hua commanded over his shoulder before his head submerged into the rapids. Princess Xiao'er offered him a sweet, compliant smile, instantly kneeling beside the seer.
While the five men aggressively swam back and forth across the churning river, dragging heavy timber across the current, Ku Ji and I immediately set to work on the bank, utilizing our hunting knives to notch the wood and construct a crude, heavy wooden raft.
"The structural integrity isn't enough. We need more bindings to hold the central logs in place!" I shouted over the roar of the water, scanning the ground for rope.
Ji Wok, who had just dragged a massive cedar log onto the bank, didn't hesitate. He reached down and began unbuckling his heavy leather and silk waistband to hand it over. He was halfway through pulling the fabric from his uniform when he suddenly caught me staring directly at his exposed midsection. He froze, his eyes widening in a sudden, bizarre panic. Without a word, he immediately turned his back to me, tossed the waistband onto the dirt pile, and sprinted back toward the river to gather more wood.
"What is suddenly wrong with him?" I made a face, thoroughly bewildered by his skittish behavior. I shook my head, returning my focus to Ku Ji, who had seamlessly unhitched his own waistband from the other side of the frame.
The moment the raft was structurally secure, Lady Suan Ming, Princess Xiao'er, and I carefully climbed aboard the wooden platform. The five men submerged themselves back into the freezing rapids, utilizing their raw physical strength to pull and guide the heavy raft across the treacherous currents.
The moment our boots safely impacted the opposite shore, Tae Hua immediately initiated his predictable, unintended remarks.
"Your dead weight completely added to the drag of the raft," he barked, wringing the freezing water from his sleeves as he glared down at me. "You should have possessed the basic discipline to learn how to swim. As a grown guy, how do you ever intend to protect your own life in an active theater of war?"
I simply winced, letting out a quiet, irritated sigh as he kept blabbering on and on, lecturing me as if my lack of aquatic skills had personally put the entire fate of the Arghon Empire into mortal danger.
Thankfully, Princess Xiao'er cut him off before I could voice a sharp retort. "Tae Hua, stop being so incredibly inconsiderate and immature," she ordered smoothly, stepping between us to settle the dispute. "Keep your mouths sealed. We must maintain absolute silence."
As if entirely deaf to her warning, Tae Hua opened his mouth to continue our squabble—but he was violently cut short when Lady Suan Ming suddenly dropped heavily to her knees, letting out a sharp, ragged gasp as she clutched her right arm.
Princess Xiao'er ran to her side in a heartbeat, expertly assisting her frame. She seized the seer's arm and aggressively rolled up the damp, red satin sleeve.
My stomach dropped. The first of the four fire flower petals had officially turned a vivid, burning, blood-red color.
Lady Suan Ming screamed in absolute agony, her head throwing back as the flesh began to blister from the internal, supernatural heat. Acting with perfect medical precision, the Princess reached deep into her hidden inner robe, extracted a small, ornate silver vial, and popped a glowing medicinal pill directly into Lady Suan Ming's mouth.
"This formulation will help numb her sensory nerves and suppress the pain," Princess Xiao'er explained, her face grave as she slung the older woman's arm over her shoulder to help her walk. "But make no mistake—this remedy is entirely temporary. The fire is still burning inside her."
With our time rapidly evaporating, we accelerated our pace, marching deep into the suffocating, twisted shadows of the ancient forest. We pushed through the dense brush for twenty agonizing minutes until the trees abruptly parted, revealing a massive, shimmering wall of distorted space that blocked the path ahead.
The final barrier.
We stood at the threshold of the forbidden zone. If we could successfully breach this last spiritual wall, the gates would open, and we would finally step into the physical perimeter of the legendary Night Pavilion.