As they spoke, the three emerged from the apricot grove and arrived at a small courtyard. The courtyard was kept very clean, with the scent of medicinal herbs drifting through. A young man sat in the courtyard grinding medicine. Upon seeing the middle-aged woman, he said something in the Saichi language.
The middle-aged woman went over to check the medicine he was grinding, then turned and pointed to a room for Ding Qin and Bai Hong. “Gemawa is in that room. She speaks official language. I have some matters to attend to—you can go in yourselves.”
Seeing Ding Qin and Bai Hong nod, she turned back to instructing the medicine-grinding youth.
It was a very small room. Rather than an independent chamber, it was more like a small space partitioned off with bamboo and wood boards. Inside, there was only room for a low bed, a small table, and a low stool. On the table sat a lamp, a water jug, and a basket containing apricots. A small window opened in the wall, with a pot of wildflowers on the windowsill, stretching their leaves and petals freely in the morning sunlight.
Gemawa stood leaning by the window, her head turned toward the door. She had already heard the commotion at the entrance and knew these two people had come to find her.
The room was so small it could be taken in almost at a glance. Ding Qin didn’t deliberately scrutinize it. Her gaze paused almost imperceptibly on the lamp on the table, then looked toward Gemawa, giving her a friendly smile. “Hello.”
Bai Hong tilted her head to examine her. Gemawa was not tall but quite solid, showing signs of having practiced cultivation. Judging only by her build, she was a robust and full-figured young woman—not fat, but with powerful muscle in her rounded arms, waist, and legs. Yet her complexion didn’t match this healthy physique—her face was too pale, even her lip color very light, a sign of weak blood and qi.
She was indeed a patient, with her arm wrapped in a layer of white cotton cloth. Bai Hong sniffed. The scent of medicinal salve in the air was for treating external injuries.
The tracking spell cast through Gelowa’s aura ended precisely on her. She was indeed Gelowa’s sister.
“Who are you?” Gemawa asked.
“We’re people who happened to pass through here and are now guests in the village.” Ding Qin took out the beast-tooth bell Gelowa had given them and explained to Gemawa why they had come to find her.
Gemawa’s expression showed some emotion. She sighed. “Thank you for the trouble. I’ll go home in a couple of days.”
“Gelowa thinks you disappeared in the forest outside and has been very worried. You look like you’re in decent condition now—why not go back?” Ding Qin asked.
“I’ll wait another couple of days until I’m completely recovered before going back. I don’t want him to know I was ill.” Gemawa said.
She was serious, not being coerced. Her reason for not going back was the same as what the middle-aged woman had said, but this explanation was far too forced. Not seeing her brother because of illness to spare him worry, even when he thought his sister had disappeared—what kind of arrangement was this? Wasn’t disappearance far more serious than illness?
But Ding Qin didn’t press further. It wasn’t just Gemawa who didn’t want Gelowa to see her—the adults in the village all felt this way. They probably weren’t targeting Gelowa specifically, but rather every child in the village. They could only be doing this for one reason: Gemawa’s “illness” concealed some secret, and they didn’t want Gelowa to see through it, so they had to wait until she recovered before she could return. This was a secret known to the adults in the village but kept from the children. As outsiders, Ding Qin and Bai Hong would be even less welcome to learn of it.
“Is your injury external? Did you encounter a demon beast while out?” Bai Hong asked, her upturned eyes falling on Gemawa’s arm wrapped in fine cotton.
“Yes, it’s not serious.” Gemawa looked down at her arm, her expression unclear. She moved her shoulder. “It’s almost healed. There have been more and more demon beasts in the forest lately.”
Bai Hong didn’t ask anything more. Before they prepared to leave, Ding Qin exchanged a few more words with Gemawa.
Before the two departed, Gemawa hesitated, then made a request, “I’ll be going back soon. These next couple of days… could you please comfort Gelowa for me and not let him worry about my injury?”
Seeing the two agree, Gemawa looked down at the beast-tooth bell, her expression softening considerably. She returned the bell to Ding Qin. “Please keep it safe for him for a couple of days. When I go back, you can give it to him then. This bell… was made from beast teeth our mother hunted and polished herself. He and I each have one—he treasures it greatly.” Yet he had been willing to entrust it to strangers to find Gemawa.
“I’ll keep it safe.” Ding Qin replied.
On their way out, the same middle-aged woman led them through the apricot grove.
Bai Hong suddenly said, “You speak official language very well.”
The middle-aged woman smiled. “When I was young, I lived outside for a long time before returning to the village.”
“Did you study medicine outside?” Bai Hong asked again.
“Those instruments gave me away, didn’t they?” The middle-aged woman smiled and admitted openly. “Yes, when I was traveling outside, I learned many things.”
Besides the village’s uniquely characteristic medical implements, the courtyard also contained many instruments that clearly derived from medical practices learned outside.
The apricot grove array’s passages weren’t long. Just in this brief time, the exit route had already changed from their entry route. The three didn’t converse for long before they saw the fence covered with pink and yellow flowering vines again.
After returning to their own room, Ding Qin looked through the basket Gelowa had brought earlier. The village didn’t lack food, but the difference between care and carelessness could still be discerned. A small stack of flatbreads the size of half a palm, yellowish and soft, baked from leavened dough and wrapped in clean, broad leaves. Berries crushed and boiled into a thick purple-red sauce, stored in a small clay jar. Several boiled eggs, three types of pickled vegetables cut into strips or cubes, and a small crock of thick mixed grain porridge, its top layer of rice oil a translucent milky white.
Ding Qin sighed softly. How should they tell Gelowa? First tell him his sister’s life was in no danger?
“If you want to uncover the village’s problems sooner, you could use this as an entry point.” Bai Hong said.
Ding Qin paused.
“Gelowa is very clever and very sensitive. And there’s that blood lineage divine ability of his, whatever it is.” Bai Hong crossed her long legs and leaned back in her chair. “Whatever the village’s secret is, they don’t want the children to know, but they won’t be as strictly guarded against them as against us.”
Ding Qin understood Bai Hong’s meaning. As long as they revealed a slight flaw while talking with Gelowa, he could see the problem himself and find that apricot grove. But, should they use Gelowa…
“If you don’t want to, we can take our time.” Bai Hong said.
They weren’t in a hurry to uncover anything. The High God said this was an abandoned scheme, which meant there was no danger and no impact. Uncovering the truth would only resolve their confusion.
Ding Qin let out a breath and nodded. “Let’s take our time then.”
If they used Gelowa, regardless of the outcome, it would break the environment the village’s people wanted to maintain—the secret the adults wished to hide would be exposed to the children. That might not be a good thing.
“Let’s go look at the lake in the village’s center.” Ding Qin said.
Gelowa and his sister were their only confirmed lead so far. If they didn’t pursue this, trying to explore the village’s secrets would inevitably be more difficult. They had seen a lamp in the apricot grove courtyard. The middle-aged woman had admitted she’d left the village for quite some time and learned many things outside. Earlier, when Ding Qin had observed karmic connections from high altitude, she had seen a figure with very heavy karmic ties to Changpu and Changpu’s master, which inevitably made her think of the Mingdeng Sect. However, lamps weren’t rare objects, and since it was now daytime with the lamp unlit, they had no way to determine whether the middle-aged woman had truly learned the Mingdeng Sect’s methods, or whether this was related to the village’s secrets.
In the vision she’d seen last night, that strange beast suspected to be a totem had been above the village’s center. The very center of the village happened to be the lake that gathered all the valley’s water flows. This morning Da Wu had taken them to the lakeside, but due to time constraints, they had only passed by briefly like a dragonfly touching water. The village didn’t forbid them from approaching the lake, but had other requirements:
“You can draw water from the lake for drinking, cleaning, and such, but you must bring the water out before using it. You cannot wash directly in the lake, nor throw anything into the lake, not even a pebble. There are fish in the lake, but you cannot catch them.” When Da Wu said these things, he was exceptionally serious. “This is our sacred lake, the most important place, so you absolutely must not do anything disrespectful. Otherwise, expulsion from the village won’t be enough to settle matters—you will become our eternal enemies.”
This lake wasn’t very large. Several small streams flowed into the lake from different directions. These streams came from the marshes at the valley’s outer edges, all flowing into the lake. One could only see inflow, never outflow, yet there were no traces of flooding around the lake. Where the water that flowed into the lake went was unknown. The lake seemed to maintain this level forever, showing neither falling nor rising water.
This water originating from the marshes wasn’t necessarily very clean, yet after flowing into the lake it became exceptionally pure, clear and flawless. One could clearly see the pebbles and green algae on the lake bottom. The lake water was calm and waveless, like a piece of the finest jade under the sunlight.
The sky was clear azure, with a few wisps of thin clouds floating idly. The lakeside was open, showing nothing unusual. If what Ding Qin had seen last night wasn’t false, the abnormality must exist in the lake.
Yet this lake water obscured vision no more than air. As long as eyesight permitted, one could directly see the lake bottom clearly.
This in itself was where the abnormality lay. How could an ordinary lake have no visible outlet, never rise or fall, remain smooth as a mirror despite stream turbulence, and be nearly completely transparent?
Bai Hong bent down and scooped up a bit of lake water, tasting it. Cool, sweet, and fresh—it could rival the finest spring water. The motion of scooping the water stirred several ripples on the lake surface, which quickly settled again.
Ding Qin stared at those quickly vanishing ripples, her gaze suddenly focusing.
“What is it?” Bai Hong asked.
“When the lake water ripples…” Ding Qin also crouched down and scooped out some lake water, her gaze fixed intently on the ripples.
Those ripples quickly dissipated, settling faster than normal water surface ripples, but Ding Qin still caught the fleeting trace of red on those waves.
“…Blood qi.” Bai Hong noticed it this time too. She raised her eyebrows.
After leaving the lake, the water became pure and sweet. Bai Hong had already tasted it herself—there wasn’t a trace of blood qi in it. The blood qi only hid within the lake. Water scooped from the lake couldn’t bring the blood qi out. Yet when this blood qi was in the lake, it was hidden so well that only when the lake water rippled would it expose the slightest bit. It seemed the lake’s unusual calmness was a concealment method.
It appeared the more the lake’s calm was disturbed, the more the lake’s secrets would be exposed. However, all methods that could create large disturbances in the lake water had already been forbidden by Da Wu earlier. If they didn’t want to clash with the village…
Ding Qin stared at the lake surface. The water had returned to calm, and the flash of red on it had also disappeared. But she had still captured what she saw in that instant—like the blood qi shrouding the village’s sky, the blood color in the lake also contained only blood qi, without the slightest resentment or malevolence.
“What do you want to do?” Bai Hong didn’t make the decision for her.
“Let’s go look in the forest.” Ding Qin turned around, murmuring, “Since we promised Gelowa we’d help him look for his sister in the forest, we should at least go take a look.”
Bai Hong smiled. “Then let’s go look in the forest.”
She and Ding Qin left the village without obstruction. People’s gazes followed them constantly—some curious, while others had already spread the news.
Action wasn’t suitable in the open grass marsh. Not until they crossed the boundary between grass marsh and forest, gradually entering deeper where trees would conceal one’s form every five feet, did rustling sounds arise all around.
Such sounds often arose in the forest—the sounds of animals living in this marshland. They had their own ways of survival. People often only heard sounds without seeing any figures.
But those who could make such sounds weren’t limited to animals.
The two young women acted as if unaware, seeming unconscious that they had already deviated from the path developed by the Saichi people, entering more dangerous and darker parts of the forest. Bai Hong’s face still carried a smile, her upturned eyes holding deep meaning.
They had been brought into the village by Da Wu. Da Wu was respected in the village, but the village wasn’t controlled by his faction alone. Within this village, there was hidden discord.
Whatever the other faction’s people wanted to do, it wouldn’t be easy to act within the village. Only outside could those people find opportunity to act, and only then could they seize new leads.