The dawn of a new day crept over the mountains, but inside the cave, the three of them were still wrapped in the stale chill of night.
Lin Shu sat against the stone wall, eyes half-closed, his breathing steady. Ren Hao and Yan Qing were nearby — both battered, both taking turns sleeping and keeping watch. The darkness clung to the walls, heavy and unmoving.
Yan Qing's legs were still partially broken, the bones knitting together far too slowly for his liking. Ren Hao's ribs weren't much better. Lin Shu himself was wrestling with the lingering bite of the Berserker's Brand pill — his limbs no longer shaking uncontrollably, but his body still a stubborn stranger to him.
A voice broke the silence.
"You don't even know why I joined that damned institute," Ren Hao muttered from his corner. "I thought it'd be safe. But with everything that's happened, we might as well have joined the shittiest one in the empire."
Yan Qing chuckled, his laugh rough and short.
"That's true. We'll probably have a bounty on our heads. I just don't think it'll be that big." He smirked. "We almost killed Han Yi, sure… but there have to be better targets than us. Besides, that idiot wouldn't stop struggling. I really thought we had her, but for some reason, this genius here—" he jabbed a finger at Ren Hao "—kept talking instead of finishing the job. Couldn't even slit her throat fast enough."
Ren Hao's face twisted.
"Well…" He couldn't find a defense. It had been childish — bragging instead of striking. He knew it.
Lin Shu opened his eyes, his tone quiet but deliberate.
"Actually… it might have been for the best."
Yan Qing frowned.
"What do you mean?"
"If you'd killed her outright," Lin Shu said, "that woman who came to save her would have had only one goal — to kill us. And she would've succeeded. The only reason we survived is because she was too busy trying to keep Han Yi alive. Every moment she spent stopping the bleeding, every breath she wasted keeping her from dying — that was time she wasn't using to cut us down."
He let the words hang before adding,
"While we were close to her, she couldn't risk anything lethal. And when she finally pushed us away, she still couldn't commit to the kill because she had to heal the girl. The best she could do was stop us from running."
Yan Qing stared at him for a long moment, then leaned back with a slow nod.
"…That actually makes sense. Still, this idiot—" he jabbed at Ren Hao again "—talked way too much. He could've just crippled her beyond repair. The woman would've wasted her time anyway, and we might've actually finished her."
Lin Shu shrugged.
"We survived, didn't we? And if we had killed her, the bounty on our heads would be much bigger than whatever's coming now. So I'd say it's a win. We got the Azure Crystals, we're still breathing… and if you two want to kill her later, be my guests."
With that, he closed his eyes again, sinking back into his slow, deliberate healing.
With his eyes shut, Lin Shu let his breathing steady — but his mind refused to rest.
The faces, the fights, the narrow brushes with death since joining the institute all replayed in his thoughts. Each one was another reminder of how close he had come to losing his life.
It struck him then — the root of it all. He had never truly chosen.
"I didn't make a decision… or rather, I was too afraid to."
Hesitation. It had followed him like a shadow, a quiet poison he had let grow in his heart. He saw it now for what it was: immaturity, weakness. And weakness was something he could no longer afford to carry.
"I will burn it out of me."
He didn't blame the institute, nor his enemies. Every scar, every wound, every loss — they were his own doing, born from drifting with the current instead of steering against it.
His vow took shape, cold and certain.
"If I want to act, I will act. I will not pause. I will not stand in the mire, asking 'what if this happens, what if that happens.' I will take what my choice brings me, whether it leads to victory or ruin. If I fail, the fault will be mine alone — but it will be my decision, not the will of the crowd."
"And while I did suffer a lot," Lin Shu thought, "I might've gained something worth a little more than Azure Crystals."
His gaze drifted to the spot under his bone gauntlet where a ring rested — Han Yi's ring, stolen in the chaos while he was beating her down.
He pushed a thread of Qi into it, scanning its contents.
Books. Pills. Weapons — mostly bows and arrows. Gold.
Then his eyes narrowed.
A strange, bluish rock the size of a fist… no, five of them, a little over that. He didn't take them out.
"No point showing this to Yan Qing or Ren Hao," he told himself. "I'll check them later."
His Qi swept further. Scrolls. Assorted oddities he didn't recognize. Two in particular caught his eye — a necklace with a small arrow pendant and a small blue ring.
"Those two feel like artifacts… but I can't be sure. I should find a book on known creations. No use holding something valuable without knowing what it does."
He moved to the scrolls, pulling them one by one into the edge of his perception. There were many, far more than he expected, but that only made him wonder:
"How many of these are actual techniques… and how many are worthless?"
Hours passed before Lin Shu finally stood. His body still ached, but he could walk. Pulling a lantern from his pouch, he stepped quietly past Ren Hao, who was fast asleep, and Yan Qing, who sat cross-legged in cultivation.
The cave was as small as Yan Qing had described — its cramped walls soon giving way to another opening. Lin Shu followed it until it ended abruptly in a vast, abyss-like hole… the same one they had almost fallen into before.
He stopped at the edge, the darkness yawning below him like an endless throat. One careless step and it would swallow him whole. The thought of a stray beast catching sight of the lantern's flame sent him a step back.
No… not worth the risk.
Turning away, he thought, "How are we supposed to climb back up?"
The truth was obvious. They were buried far too deep to scale the way they had come. The beasts here were too dangerous for them to fight, let alone climb past while being hunted.
And another thought struck him — a worse one.
"If those beasts live in darkness… what are the chances one of them can see in it? Or worse — sense heat? If they can, they'd find us immediately."
The risk was too high. He headed back to the others, the lantern casting thin, trembling shadows along the stone. Stopping near them, he said,
"Any ideas on how we're getting out of here?"
Ren Hao scratched his head, thinking aloud, "We could just climb back up."
Yan Qing immediately shot him a sharp kick in the ribs.
"And run straight into that giant winged beast again? Its eye was as big as you. How big do you think its claws are?"
Lin Shu frowned, rubbing his chin.
"Does anyone have clear information about this exact place? Has it ever been explored?"
Yan Qing shrugged.
"No clue."
Ren Hao nodded slowly.
"Well, I heard this whole place — it's basically a vast chasm, like a deep, endless ravine carved into the earth. The sun never reaches down here. It's wide and stretches farther than anyone's dared to map."
He paused, lowering his voice.
"They say it was created by a fight between a cultivator and a sentient beast, from one of those old history books. Probably just legend, but you never know."
"As for whether anyone's gone down here," Ren Hao continued, "it's way too dangerous. There are too many beasts, and most are far stronger than cultivators can handle. Plus, climbing down into this place is practically impossible. So, no successful expedition has ever happened."
Lin Shu's brow furrowed in surprise.
"Sentient beasts?"
Ren Hao shrugged.
"Yeah, haven't you ever read about them in those fairy tale books? They're pretty famous."
Lin Shu leaned in, curious.
"What exactly are they?"
Ren Hao tapped his chin thoughtfully.
"Well, like the name says, they're sentient — they think like us, talk our language. But how true that is, I don't know. I've never even heard of one showing up in the last century."
Lin Shu's interest flickered, but he pushed the thought aside, turning back to the problem at hand.
"We could try going deeper into the cave, follow that path until it ends. But if the beast we saw near the entrance was that huge, I can only imagine what waits in the deeper parts. We might even run into an Emberwake realm beast."
Yan Qing grinned, surprising them both.
"That's actually a good thing."
Lin Shu and Ren Hao exchanged a look, silently asking why.
Yan Qing shrugged, eager to explain.
"You see, Emberwake beasts are 'titled' beasts. They're so powerful, we're like ants to them. Think of it this way — if a lion is standing still, and an ant walks by, would it even bother looking at it let alone attack it?"
Ren Hao shook his head.
"No, it wouldn't."
"Exactly." Yan Qing nodded. "A lion only hunts things that threaten it or that it can eat. Blood beasts survive by feeding on other beasts and cultivators, because of the Qi in their cores — the Dantian. That's how they grow stronger. So, back to the lion — would one small ant fill its hunger? Of course not."
He paused, letting the image sink in.
"A rank 3 beast wouldn't even look at us, because we're harmless ants to it. But a rank 2 sees us as mosquitoes or flys buzzing around, and that's why it would attack us."
Lin Shu's eyes sharpened as Yan Qing continued,
"And that's the best part about a rank 3 beast: it won't allow anything in its territory. If one truly exists down there, it's the best case for us. Any lower rank would see us as an annoyance, or worse — prey."