Chapter 97: I Should Take Offense

~~~

Feng Zhi allows them to enjoy the Bright Phantasm Sect’s hospitality for exactly one day. Liu Jin supposes it is his way of being kind. Unfortunately, it is not Liu Jin’s idea of a pleasant time. For one day, they are constantly fawned over by the servants, their every whim treated as an absolute command.

Liu Jin made exactly one offhand comment about the hot humidity of Night Phantasm City. That was enough for a servant to show up at this side moments later with a large, feathered fan. Since telling him there was no need for such things would have been too embarrassing for the man, Liu Jin endured it in dignified silence. At least, he’d like to think it was dignified. The way Lu Mei’s eyes shone with mirth throughout the whole thing told him she knew exactly how uncomfortable he had been.

It is only late at night when Feng Zhi gathers them in a room, away from servants and disciples. Only Patriarch Wong and Wong Shou are with him. That is when he explains the situation to them. It is just as Wong Shou told Liu Jin the other night. There have been several attacks on areas where herbs and fruits precious to the Bright Phantasm Sect are located.

“Couldn’t it have been a Spirit Beast?” Bei Hong asks the obvious question. The Bright Phantasm Sect harvests resources from the Night Forest. If some areas of the forest have been damaged, assuming it is the result of one or more rowdy Spirit Beasts is only natural.

“Unlikely.” Feng Zhi shakes his head. They are all seated around a large map of the area. Feng Zhi taps the attacked areas. “The attacks were far too methodical for it to have been a Spirit Beast. If it is a Spirit Beast doing this, it is one with a high degree of intelligence. However, the most likely alternative is that we are dealing with a faction that has decided to destroy the forest’s resources as opposed to stealing them.”

Patriarch Wong’s frown is easy to see, even in the poorly-lit room. Feng Zhi’s words just now have probably been on his mind for a while.

Destroying over stealing.

No wonder Patriarch Wong decided to ask Feng Zhi for help instead of trying to hide this matter for the duration of their stay. Suppose these people really aren’t interested in taking the resources the Bright Phantasm Sect controls for themselves. That would mean their goal is not to strengthen themselves but to weaken the Bright Phantasm Sect.

“Our disciples have been patrolling the Night Forest with increasing frequency. However, I regret to say they haven’t had any luck finding the culprits,” Patriarch Wong says.

“There is no shame in that,” Feng Zhi says. “The Bright Phantasm Sect’s disciples are spread too thin right now. You simply lack the numbers to protect and search.”

Feng Zhi’s gold eyes seem to glow as he looks at them.

“You shall make up for the difference.”

~~~

“We haven’t seen a glimpse of them.”

Liu Jin looks at Bei Hong out of the corner of his eye. The two are moving through the forest at a moderate pace. The dense blue mists make it hard to see more than a few feet away. If they move too fast, they might end up running into a tree.

“Surely, you did not think it would be easy?” Liu Jin asks while inwardly thinking he has had a conversation with Huang Shing that went a bit like this during the Selection Exam. No wonder the two became friends so quickly.

They are equally impatient.

“Putting the mists aside, we have yet to reach our destination.”

Liu Jin holds up his left hand. In it, there is a wooden compass with a purple needle pointing north. It had been given to them by Patriarch Wong. A Mist Pointer, he called it.

The mists of the Night Forest are not just dense. They create illusions that could and did confuse travelers. That is why Mist Pointers were created. The metal with which the needles are made works similarly to the petals of a Lovers Crimson Blossom. It will naturally point at itself. This allows the Bright Phantasm Sect to mark specific spots in the forest for ease of navigation.

The Mist Pointer in Liu Jin’s possession is leading them to one of the attacked areas. They are to investigate it while Feng Zhi handles a few diplomatic matters within the city. Lu Mei and Huang Shing are serving as his escorts, a situation that is undoubtedly not to Huang Shing’s liking. He had volunteered to go to the forest as well, but Feng Zhi had shot down his suggestion.

“There is no need to send more than two people. Bei Hong is the strongest of the four of you, and that one’s work in the Apothecary means he should be familiar with most of the plants in the Night Forest. They are the best combination for this.”

Feng Zhi’s reasoning, much to Huang Shing’s misfortune, was completely sound. The Young Master of the Eternal Flame Clan had not been lying when he said he had gone over their records.

It is, to be honest, slightly worrying he knew so much about them.

“I know we are not in the exact location,” Bei Hong says. “However, we should have already seen signs of the damage they did! They kept talking about areas of the forest being destroyed and harvests being ruined. Think of our fight in the Summer Forest. We wrecked that area. You would have easily been able to see that level of damage from above, but we saw nothing of the sort while we flew over the forest.”

“Fair point,” Liu Jin admits. “It is possible the mists concealed the damage or maybe….”

Liu Jin trails off as he sees the needle suddenly point south.

“Is something wrong?” Bei Hon asks, stopping as Liu Jin slows down.

“We… passed it over?” Liu Jin half-states, half-asks.

“That’s not possible.” Bei Hong waves his arm around. “There is nothing here that’s even remotely destroyed. Did they give us a faulty pointer or…” He frowns. “An illusion?”

Liu Jin thinks about it a while, his Qi reaching out to the area around him.

“No.” He shakes his head. “At least, I don’t think so, so maybe…”

He leaps back a few yards.

The needle goes back to pointing north—the corner of Liu Jin’s mouth twitches.

“Imagine that.” He holds up the Mist Pointer so Bei Hong can see it. “This is it. This is the area.”

Bei Hong takes a moment to look around. The lush trees. The chirping birds. The small mammals squirreling over the area, safely hidden by the mists.

“This?” He spreads out his arms. “This is the damaged area? There’s nothing here! What damage? What attack? What foes? The wind? Are we meant to fight the wind?”

Liu Jin is about to reply when he catches sight of something, a small blackened thing lying on the ground. He immediately jumps over there and realizes it is not just one. There are many like it scattered all over.

“Here.” Liu Jin tosses one to Bei Hong. “That’s a fruit. Or rather, it was a fruit. Decadent Night Plum.”

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Decadent Night Plum. A fruit that could only grow in areas with relatively high-concentrations of Yin Qi. It acts as a mild hallucinogen, meaning most wildlife avoids it. Only humans had the knowledge necessary to make full use of its properties.

“It’s burned,” Bei Hong says, squeezing the fruit into ashes. His gaze now takes a more thorough look at their surroundings. The branches, which had looked perfectly fine at first glance, now reveal their imperfections to him. The way they’ve been broken and twisted, their fruits ripped away and rendered useless. “So this is what they meant.”

Destroyed. The word had not been used lightly. This year’s harvest of Decadent Night Plums is a lost cause. Whoever had done this had methodically rendered every single one of them useless. Certainly, the trees are still intact. In time, they’d give fruit again, but that is the problem. It would take time.

No wonder they had not even considered it could be the job of a Spirit Beast.

“If this has been happening in other areas of the forest, I can see why the Bright Phantasm Sect is worried.”

Bei Hong snorts. “They’re worried because they are incompetent. If they had kept better watch over their territory, this wouldn’t have happened. They have gotten too used to us protecting them.”

“You may be right,” Liu Jin admits, still examining the burnt fruit. “Still, it is best not to say something like that where someone could hear.”

Bei Hong snorts. “I should take offense to that, but it is true I have never cared for such things. Diplomatic training was always a waste of time. Still, what do you think did this? They are burned, so I want to say it is a fire technique, but…”

“There is something weird about it,” Liu Jin admits, nodding. “I don’t feel any lingering Yang Qi.”

If it had been a fire technique, then Yang Qi would have been a natural component to it. However, Liu Jin feels nothing of the sort. More importantly, why not just use fire to burn everything indiscriminately? Burning the fruits one by one is the same as announcing this is a deliberate attack.

“It could be the forest,” Bei Hong points out. “The balance here is lopsided, so any Yang Qi would naturally disperse in search for balance. Just as water automatically seeks the lowest point, Yin and Yang naturally seek… what?”

The question is aimed at Liu Jin, who is staring at Bei Hong with mute shock.

“I am sorry. I was just… surprised. That is all.”

“Just because I prefer to communicate with my fists does not mean I don’t know things. The Golden Fist style is Yang-based. I’d be a complete embarrassment if I didn’t know this much,” Bei Hong points out dryly. “By the way, is it twelve or thirteen? I can’t quite tell.”

“Fifteen,” Liu Jin replies.

“Really?”

“They are doing a good job hiding, and the mists make finding them difficult, but I feel confident in my assessment.”