Two hours passed like ten minutes.
Shen Lu didn't sleep. He stared at the stars and listened to his own breathing and tried not to think about Bai Mo's voice saying "I will always answer" like it was a kindness instead of a trap.
The flame pulsed softly, steady, contained.
When Helian Feng said "Move," everyone rose like they'd been waiting for the word.
They traveled through the rest of the night, cutting across unfamiliar terrain. Helian Feng chose a direction that made no strategic sense—toward a stretch of dead farmland and dried rivers that nobody would travel through by choice.
That was the point.
By dawn, the landscape had turned brown and flat. The wind was dry. The sky was pale and empty.
Pei Xun muttered, "This is depressing."
Tang Ye tried to smile. "It's… peaceful."
Pei Xun stared at him. "It's dead."
Tang Ye's smile faltered. "Peacefully dead."
Gu Li's voice was stern. "Rest stop."
They found shade under a half-collapsed stone wall that had once been something—a farmhouse, a shrine, a boundary marker. Hard to tell.
Shen Lu sat against the wall and pressed his thumb to his pendant through his robe.
Warm.
Steady.
Little Root rustled faintly, leaves drooping with tiredness. Even the plant was exhausted.
Yuan's voice drifted in, lazy. Master… the snake sleeps.
Shen Lu let him.
Gu Li handed out water and dried food. Nobody complained about the taste. After the underworld, dust-flavored rations felt honest.
Tang Ye fed his fox from his own portion.
The fox—Yue—accepted it with the grace of a queen tolerating a servant's offering. She ate delicately, one ear flicked toward Shen Lu at all times, as if guarding and judging simultaneously.
Then Yue lifted her head and spoke directly into Shen Lu's mind.
That man will come back.
Shen Lu swallowed. He didn't need to ask who.
Tang Ye noticed Shen Lu's expression shift and frowned. "What's Yue saying."
Shen Lu's mouth twisted. "She's being optimistic."
Yue's tail flicked once, offended. I'm being accurate.
Tang Ye sighed. "She does that."
Pei Xun glanced over. "Your fox talks to him more than to you."
Tang Ye's face fell. "I know."
Yue's voice in Shen Lu's mind was smug. You're less interesting.
Tang Ye couldn't hear it, but he seemed to sense it anyway. "She's insulting me, isn't she."
Shen Lu's lips twitched despite everything. "A little."
Xie Han watched from his spot against the wall, fan resting on one knee. "The fox has taste."
Pei Xun shot him a look. "Don't encourage it."
Yue ignored them all and stood, stretching her adolescent body with deliberate elegance. Her single tail swayed once, thick and expressive.
Then she padded over to Shen Lu and sat directly in front of him, staring with bright, unblinking eyes.
Shen Lu stared back. "What."
Yue's voice in his mind was sharp, stripped of smugness. The polite one will target your healer first.
Shen Lu's stomach tightened.
Gu Li.
"Why," Shen Lu thought back.
Yue's ears flicked. Because a healer keeps the group alive. Remove the healer, the body weakens.
Shen Lu's throat burned.
He looked at Gu Li across the resting space. Gu Li sat with his satchel open, sorting herbs with methodical precision, stern face unchanged. He looked like he could handle anything.
But handling anything didn't mean surviving everything.
Yue continued, voice quieter now. And the paper boy second. Because talismans detect contracts.
Shen Lu's chest tightened. "You figured this out."
Yue's tail curled around her paws. I figured it out the moment that man bowed. A bow that polite is a blade measuring distance.
Shen Lu swallowed hard.
He didn't want Yue to be right.
Yue probably was.
Tang Ye leaned closer, reading Shen Lu's face. "She's saying something serious."
Shen Lu forced his voice even. "She says we need to protect Gu Li and Pei Xun."
Gu Li looked up, stern. "I don't need protection."
Pei Xun's tone was dry. "I do. But don't tell anyone."
Gu Li's gaze softened by a hair, then hardened again. "We protect each other. That's the rule."
Helian Feng's voice cut in, cold. "The fox is right."
Everyone looked at him.
Helian Feng's eyes were on Yue. "If Yaochuan wants to dismantle us, they won't come directly. They'll separate us."
Yue's tail flicked once, and in Shen Lu's mind she said, simply, He understands.
Then, after a pause: Master husband is not stupid.
Shen Lu choked on air.
Tang Ye patted his back, confused. "Are you okay?"
Shen Lu coughed. "Fine."
Yue's smugness returned like weather. Tell him I approve. Conditionally.
Shen Lu thought back, fierce: I am not telling him that.
Yue yawned. Then I will. Eventually.
Shen Lu rubbed his face with both hands.
Pei Xun watched, brows raised. "The fox is doing something again."
Tang Ye sighed. "She always is."
Xie Han's smile widened. "The fox is the smartest one here."
Yue's ears perked. In Shen Lu's mind: The blade boy is correct.
Shen Lu let out a slow breath and forced himself back to the moment.
"We need a plan," Shen Lu said quietly. "Not just running."
Helian Feng's gaze sharpened. "What kind of plan."
Shen Lu swallowed. "Bai Mo bought a rumor about a flame. If the rumor is wrong, the purchase is worthless."
Pei Xun's eyes narrowed with interest. "Go on."
Shen Lu's throat tightened, but he pushed through. "What if the alchemist with the flame… wasn't me."
Tang Ye blinked. "What?"
Gu Li's expression didn't change, but his fingers paused on his herbs.
Xie Han leaned forward. "Misdirection."
Shen Lu nodded. "If we can plant a different rumor—another alchemist, another direction, another story—the buyers chase a ghost."
Pei Xun's mouth curved slightly. "You want to sell a lie."
Shen Lu's voice was dry. "I want to buy time."
Helian Feng's gaze held Shen Lu's for a long moment.
Cold.
Assessing.
Then something shifted behind those eyes.
Not warmth.
Respect.
Helian Feng said, voice quiet, "Where do we plant it."
Shen Lu's lips thinned. "The next market town. The kind of place where gossip moves faster than feet."
Pei Xun's paper strips stirred under his sleeve, eager. "I can write something that looks like leaked intelligence."
Gu Li's voice was stern. "It has to be believable."
Xie Han smiled. "I can make anything believable."
Tang Ye raised his hand. "I can talk to people. That's… what I do."
Yue spoke into Shen Lu's mind, pleased. The pack is learning.
Shen Lu exhaled slowly.
He didn't feel safe.
He didn't feel strong.
But he felt something close to useful.
Helian Feng's voice came last, controlled and final. "We find the next town. We plant the lie. Then we disappear."
Pei Xun's smile was thin. "Disappearing is my specialty."
Gu Li stood, satchel packed, stern as ever. "Then let's go."
They rose and started walking again.
The dead farmland stretched around them, brown and empty.
But Shen Lu's mind was already moving ahead, building a ghost for Yaochuan to chase.
And inside his chest, the flame pulsed once, warm and quiet.
Not angry.
Not afraid.
Patient.
Like it understood that the best fires didn't roar.
They waited.