A-He frowned slightly but said nothing. She wasn't familiar with A-Lan; they hadn't even met before this. She only knew that A-Lan worked under Ningguang, had unpredictable movements, and possessed extraordinary methods.
Such a person should not have had much intersection with an outsider like herself.
"I've heard about you," A-Lan leaned lazily on the railing, squinting as she looked into the distance. "Abandoned in the deep mountains by your father as a child, adopted by True Lord Who Is Good at Chatting, and secluded from the world until recently stepping back into the mortal realm."
A-He's eyes flickered slightly, her tone remaining calm: "You know quite a lot."
"It's my job," A-Lan smiled at her, though her gaze held an unusual warmth. "But some things can only be understood through personal experience, like... the feeling of reintegrating into this world."
The words were spoken casually, yet they precisely touched the most sensitive part of A-He's heart. She remained silent for a moment before finally speaking: "It is not easy."
A-Lan didn't reply, simply watching the distant night view. The two stood side by side on the balcony—one as cold as ice and snow, the other as deep as the night—completely different, yet somehow harmonious.
[Chapter 2: Bamboo Shadow Maze, Threads of Opportunity]
A few days later, A-He received a commission from Ningguang, who mentioned that her subordinates were currently unavailable and asked if A-He could go to Qingce Village to investigate a strange occurrence. Having nothing to do, A-He readily agreed.
According to the intel, villagers had recently been losing their way deep in the bamboo forest; familiar paths had become strange, and some were even trapped for days before escaping. Locals said that moving paths had appeared in the forest, changing unpredictably like living things.
A-He arrived in the afternoon, with sunlight casting mottled shadows through the bamboo leaves. She followed the path described by the villagers into the forest and indeed noticed something was wrong.
The path ahead changed imperceptibly, her previous footprints vanished, and the surrounding scenery began to repeat.
It was a formation.
A-He understood immediately; someone had set up a maze here to trap passersby.
But this could not trap her. She focused her mind and was about to find a way to break the formation when she suddenly heard the sound of fighting coming from deep within the bamboo forest.
A-He gripped Calamity Queller and followed the sound, her steps quickly passing through a dense thicket of bamboo. The scene before her made her pause slightly.
It was A-Lan.
That lazy and elegant figure from the night was now as sharp as a blade.
A-Lan was being attacked by three masked men but was handling them with ease. She moved nimbly through the flashes of blades, her silk threads weaving an invisible net in the air, neutralizing her opponents' attacks one by one.
One masked man was already down, and the other two were showing signs of exhaustion.
"Better to help than just watch, don't you think?" A-Lan caught sight of A-He and laughed aloud, her tone as relaxed as if she were playing a game rather than fighting for her life.
A-He did not hesitate, shaking her spear and joining the fray. Her spearwork was sharp and precise, completely different from A-Lan's style, yet they coordinated perfectly. Within a few moves, the remaining two masked men were defeated.
"Thanks," A-Lan said as she retracted her silk threads after the enemies were dealt with. She wiped the fine sweat from her brow, her gaze falling on A-He's face. "These guys set up a formation here to trap people; I've been tracking them for days."
"Why the formation?" A-He asked directly.
A-Lan kicked a masked man unconscious on the ground. "Supposedly to find the legendary treasure beneath Qingce Village. They used the maze to trap villagers to force information out of them."
She explained briefly and then knelt down to search the masked men for evidence. A-He stood by, watching her movements, when she suddenly noticed a faint wound on A-Lan's arm that was seeping blood.
"You're injured," A-He said, staring at the wound and frowning slightly.
A-Lan glanced at it, unconcerned. "A minor wound, it's fine."
A-He was silent for a moment before suddenly taking a small bottle from her robes and handing it over. "Healing medicine prepared by my master; the effects are very good."
A-Lan was slightly startled. When she took the bottle, her fingertips seemingly unintentionally brushed across A-He's palm, and a hard-to-read smile flashed in her eyes. "Thanks for the concern."
After treating the wound, A-Lan stood up and looked around. "The maze hasn't been dispelled yet; we need to find the eye of the formation. In your opinion, where would it be?"
A-He closed her eyes and focused, sensing the flow of energy around them. After a moment, she pointed southeast. "There are unusual fluctuations there."
The two then went there together and indeed found a buried Catalyst beneath a bamboo cluster; that was the eye of the formation.
A-Lan was about to reach for it when A-He suddenly grabbed her wrist. "There is a trap."
A-Lan raised an eyebrow, watching A-He release her wrist and use her spear to lightly touch the Catalyst. Instantly, several cold beams shot out from the ground; had they not been triggered early, they surely would have injured the person taking the treasure.
A-He turned her wrist, and Calamity Queller traced a silver arc in the air, precisely parrying all the hidden weapons. She leaned down to check the Catalyst, condensing a bit of adepti power at her fingertips to easily break the trap incantations attached to it.
"Close call," A-Lan chuckled, taking a step closer. "I owe you another one."
"It was no trouble at all, no need for thanks," A-He replied coldly, yet she could feel A-Lan's warm breath brushing against the side of her neck, carry a faint, lingering fragrance.
She felt a bit strange, not understanding why this person was leaning so close. A hint of doubt rose in her heart, but she didn't show it, simply taking out the Catalyst and handing it to A-Lan. "It's done."
As A-Lan took it, her fingertips again seemingly accidentally brushed against the back of A-He's hand. A-He was slightly startled; the touch was icy, different from the snow on the mountain peaks—it was a chill stained with night dew.
A-Lan carefully put away the Catalyst, planning to take it back for further study.
With the Catalyst removed and the eye broken, the eerie atmosphere in the bamboo forest gradually dissipated, and the maze collapsed. The two escorted the captives out of the forest and handed them over to the nearby Millelith.
[The next chapter was struck by an "elbow strike" (censored), I clearly didn't write anything controversial, yet they won't let me post it!! I'll likely have to delay the publication, apologies!]
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