The next town was two days of walking through dead fields and dried riverbeds.
Nobody complained.
After the underworld, boredom felt like a gift.
Shen Lu used the travel time to think. He turned the plan over in his head like a pill recipe, checking for cracks, testing for poison.
A fake alchemist.
A fake flame rumor.
A fake trail leading somewhere far from where they actually were.
Simple in concept.
Dangerous in execution.
Because lies had to be fed, just like fire.
Yuan stirred lazily in his mind on the second morning. Master… your mind tastes like smoke.
Shen Lu thought back, dry: That's called thinking.
Yuan sounded amused. Dangerous habit.
Yue walked ahead of the group, tail swaying, ears flicking at every sound. He hadn't spoken much since the underworld, which made Shen Lu uneasy. A quiet Yue was a calculating Yue.
Then, halfway through the second day, Yue's voice dropped into Shen Lu's mind, sharp.
Town ahead. Small. Smells like gossip and cheap wine.
Shen Lu's pulse quickened.
He looked ahead and saw it: a cluster of rooftops behind a low stone wall, smoke drifting from chimneys, the faint sound of cart wheels and voices.
Not a city.
A crossroads town.
The kind of place where travelers stopped, traded news, drank too much, and moved on. Where information spread like spilled water.
Perfect.
Helian Feng stopped and turned to face the group.
"Roles," Helian Feng said.
Pei Xun's brows rose. "You've been planning."
Helian Feng's gaze was flat. "Yes."
Shen Lu's throat tightened. He'd been planning too. But hearing Helian Feng say it first made something twist in his chest—relief and resentment tangled together.
Helian Feng looked at Tang Ye. "You talk."
Tang Ye blinked. "That's… my role?"
Helian Feng's voice stayed flat. "You enter first. Alone. You drink. You talk to strangers. You mention hearing about an alchemist with a flame."
Tang Ye nodded slowly, cheer creeping back into his expression like light finding a crack. "I can do that."
Helian Feng's gaze moved to Pei Xun. "You write."
Pei Xun's mouth curved. "A fake intelligence slip."
Helian Feng nodded once. "Something that looks stolen. Something that looks like it came from a sect messenger's pouch."
Pei Xun's paper strips stirred under his sleeve, already eager. "I'll need an hour."
Helian Feng looked at Xie Han. "You plant it."
Xie Han's smile sharpened. "Where."
Helian Feng's voice was cold. "A merchant's bag. A traveler's satchel. Somewhere it will be found and repeated."
Xie Han flicked his fan open. "Easy."
Gu Li's stern voice cut in. "And me."
Helian Feng's gaze softened by a fraction—so small Shen Lu almost missed it. "You watch Shen Lu."
Gu Li nodded once, unsurprised. "And you?"
Helian Feng's eyes went cold again. "I don't enter."
Shen Lu blinked. "What?"
Helian Feng's gaze landed on him, steady. "My face was named in the underworld. If I walk into that town, anyone connected to Yaochuan will know within a day."
Shen Lu's stomach tightened.
He was right.
Helian Feng continued. "I stay outside. I watch the roads."
Pei Xun's tone was dry. "Lonely."
Helian Feng didn't respond.
Shen Lu swallowed. "And me?"
Helian Feng's jaw tightened, just slightly. "You stay outside too."
Shen Lu's anger flared instantly. "No."
Gu Li's stern gaze flicked between them.
Helian Feng's voice was ice. "You're the target."
Shen Lu's voice came out rough. "And I'm the one who came up with this plan."
Helian Feng's eyes narrowed. "Coming up with a plan doesn't mean executing it in person."
Shen Lu's flame warmed, reacting to the spike of frustration. He forced it down, hard.
"I need to go in," Shen Lu said, voice tight but controlled. "I need to see how people react. I need to know if the lie works."
Pei Xun glanced between them, dry. "He has a point."
Gu Li's voice was stern. "He also has a flame that reacts to emotion in a room full of strangers."
Tang Ye looked uncomfortable.
Xie Han watched with bright eyes, like he was enjoying the argument as entertainment.
Yue's voice slid into Shen Lu's mind, calm. Master husband is afraid for you.
Shen Lu thought back, fierce: Don't start.
Yue's tail flicked. I'm stating facts.
Helian Feng stared at Shen Lu for a long breath.
Then he said, voice low, "Mask. No speaking. You sit with Gu Li and you watch. Nothing more."
Shen Lu's jaw clenched.
It was a compromise that tasted like a leash.
But it was better than being left outside like luggage.
"Fine," Shen Lu said.
Helian Feng's gaze held his for another beat.
Then he turned away.
They split.
Tang Ye entered first, Yue tucked inside his outer robe, invisible except for the occasional lump of attitude shifting under fabric. Tang Ye's smile was back, bright and easy, like a boy looking for a hot meal and good company.
Half an hour later, Xie Han drifted in through a different gate, fan tucked away, looking like a bored young traveler with too much time.
Pei Xun found a quiet corner outside the town wall and worked.
Shen Lu watched him for a moment.
Pei Xun's hands moved with precise, careful strokes. The paper he used wasn't his talisman stock. It was cheaper, rougher—the kind a sect messenger might carry. The ink was diluted slightly, made to look hurried.
What he wrote was a short, coded message.
Shen Lu couldn't read it fully, but he caught fragments.
"...junior alchemist... fire-type binding... heading east toward..."
East.
They were going west.
Pei Xun's mouth curved as he worked. "Believable?"
Shen Lu swallowed. "Too believable."
Pei Xun's smile turned thin. "That's the point."
When the slip was done, Pei Xun folded it into a tight square, smudged one corner as if it had been handled roughly, then tucked it into his sleeve.
He handed it to Xie Han through Gu Li, who carried it like medicine he disapproved of.
Then Shen Lu and Gu Li entered the town together.
Masked.
Quiet.
Invisible.
The town was small and busy in the way crossroads towns always were—too many people passing through, too little reason to remember faces. Spirit lamps flickered weakly. Low-grade stones clinked in pouches. A tea house sat at the center, doors open, noise spilling out.
Tang Ye was already inside.
Shen Lu could hear his laugh before they entered.
They sat in a corner, Gu Li ordering tea with a stern nod, Shen Lu keeping his head down.
Tang Ye was at a table near the center, talking to three older travelers with the easy warmth of someone who'd never met a stranger he couldn't charm.
"...heard from a merchant near the eastern ridge," Tang Ye was saying, voice bright. "Some young alchemist bound a heavenly flame. Can you imagine?"
One traveler grunted. "Rumors."
Tang Ye's smile widened. "Sure. But this one came with details. A fire binding, a rare root, the whole thing."
Another traveler leaned in. "Which direction?"
Tang Ye shrugged, eyes innocent. "East, they said. Toward the border sects."
The word east landed like a seed in wet soil.
Shen Lu watched the travelers' faces.
Interest.
Not suspicion.
Not yet.
Shen Lu's flame pulsed once, quiet and contained.
Outside, somewhere in the town's flow of bodies and bags, Xie Han was slipping Pei Xun's forged intelligence slip into a merchant's satchel with the smooth hands of someone who'd been born to steal.
Shen Lu drank his tea.
It tasted like dust and hope.
Yue's voice drifted into Shen Lu's mind from inside Tang Ye's robe, smug and satisfied.
The lie is walking.
Shen Lu swallowed.
Now they just had to make sure it walked faster than the truth.